It was a weak attempt to keep relevance when faced against Gemini and Claude. But it’s completely unnecessary now that OpenAI has contracted with the government. They get all that sweet tax payer money and get to repurpose a ton of GPUs making stupid videos to supporting that new gov contract.
Comment on OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video Platform
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 5 days ago
OpenAI said it will discontinue Sora, the generative-AI video creation platform it launched in late 2024, without providing a reason for the decision.
That is the strongest indication this is the beginning of the end for the AI bubble. Sora burned a ton of processing power, with no clear value proposition, just to keep the hype cycle going a little longer. Shutting down without explanation leaves the most likely one: they are out of helium to pump into the balloon. And if that balloon isn’t inflating, it’s deflating.
CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world 5 days ago
kromem@lemmy.world 4 days ago
It’s not and probably the opposite.
When Sora launched it was way ahead. Seedance 2’s release was notably better than any of the other video gen models, Sora included.
The market is getting commoditized because there’s no moat and OpenAI hasn’t led on pretty much any release for a while now other than Sora, which they’re probably falling behind on now.
This is the opposite of a burst from a tech standpoint, even if OpenAI as a company starts to pop.
TL;DR: This is likely happening because the tech accelerated across the industry in ways OpenAI can’t catch back up to, not because it’s lagging.
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Upvoted for a different perspective, but I suspect it ends in the same place.
OpenAI is kept solvent by investor capital, and capital is kept flowing by the perception of OpenAI being the market leader. Seedance being a better model, enough to cause OpenAI to exit the market, still ruptures the perception of value. In a market with no clear profitability path, that’s ground falling away.
It also can’t be simply commoditized because generations (I’m sure even Seedance) are expensive and still not good enough for production use, even if 50% of their consumer base might boycott if a major studio even did use it in production. Commoditization can’t occur when there’s still no economically self-sustaining, market-acceptable “good enough” product. Without that, even if the leader changes, it’s a race between lemmings (sorry) off the cliff.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Isn’t spending billions of dollars with nothing to show for it in the end the definition of a popping bubble?
yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
No, it’s called the basic business model for tech companies since years. Sadly.
A bubble popping would be when people start asking for their ROI or sell.
makyo@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Yep - they briefly led in video gen but quickly were overtaken by other groups. There are even open source local models that perform really well now.
They could conceivably catch back up but how does that help them when their priority is chasing the AGI/ASI dragon?
merc@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
this is the beginning of the end for the AI bubble
The end of the AI bubble has been beginning for years. The end of the beginning of the end of the bubble might take a few more years.
IronBird@lemmy.world 4 days ago
escalator up, elevator down
klay1@lemmy.world 4 days ago
i agree that AI is a bubble of trash but shutting off a part that wasn’t worth the cost is not an indication of an end. They just reduced cost to extend the financial runway. From my point of view text and coding were more popular anyway.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Maybe you can only watch so many nonsense videos. I assume I’m sadly wrong though.