Frontier-Models

In a single week, OpenAI pulled off one of its most dramatic pivots yet: killing off Sora — the AI video generation app it launched just six months ago — while quietly completing pretraining on its next-generation flagship model internally codenamed “Spud.” The double announcement is more than product housekeeping. It signals OpenAI’s strategic posture heading into its IPO: ruthless focus on frontier model capability at the expense of creative consumer bets. ...

OpenAI made two announcements on March 24 that, taken together, reveal a company in sharp strategic pivot mode: it killed Sora, the AI video app it launched just six months ago, and confirmed through internal sources that it has completed pretraining on a new flagship model codenamed “Spud” — one Sam Altman has privately told staff can “really accelerate the economy.” Sora Is Dead The shutdown of Sora isn’t a quiet deprecation. OpenAI is pulling the standalone app entirely. Sora launched in late 2024 to significant fanfare as a consumer-facing AI video generation tool, but it struggled to find its place in a crowded market that also includes Runway, Pika, and Kling. Multiple outlets — including The New York Times, NBC News, TechCrunch, Axios, CNN, and Variety — confirmed the shutdown on March 24. ...