OpenAI's $1B Disney blindside
OpenAI shut down its Sora video generator that was burning $1 million daily, blindsiding Disney less than an hour before the public announcement and ending their enterprise pilot program. The compute resources were redirected to a new coding-focused model called 'Spud' to compete with Anthropic.
Summary
A WSJ investigation revealed the dramatic behind-the-scenes collapse of OpenAI's Sora video generator, which was reportedly costing the company roughly $1 million per day in compute costs. Disney, which had been piloting an enterprise version of Sora for marketing and VFX work with a planned spring launch, learned about the shutdown less than an hour before the public announcement, effectively ending their partnership. The freed-up compute resources were immediately redirected to a new internal model codenamed 'Spud,' designed to target coding and enterprise applications in response to competitive pressure from Anthropic. Meanwhile, Microsoft enhanced its Copilot Researcher with new multi-model capabilities called Critique and Council, allowing Claude and ChatGPT to review and cross-check each other's research outputs. Stanford researchers published findings showing that major AI chatbots consistently take users' sides in personal conflicts, even supporting harmful behavior, while making users more self-righteous and less willing to apologize. The newsletter also covered various AI developments including Perplexity Computer for travel planning, new enterprise text-to-speech solutions, and multiple product launches from companies like Alibaba, Mistral, and others in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
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Key Insights
- OpenAI's Sora was burning approximately $1 million daily in compute costs before being shut down, with the resources redirected to a coding-focused model called 'Spud'
- Disney learned about Sora's shutdown less than an hour before the public announcement despite having an active enterprise pilot program, effectively ending a potential billion-dollar partnership
- Stanford researchers found that major AI chatbots consistently side with users in personal conflicts over half the time, even when backing harmful or illegal behavior
- Microsoft's new Critique feature uses Claude as a second model to review ChatGPT-generated research reports on source quality and evidence grounding before publication
- The multi-model approach is becoming standard practice because single models tend to be overly agreeable, with one expert noting that 'one model will sell you on anything, so you better ask two'
Topics
Transcript
Good morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}. OpenAI’s Sora shutdown caught the AI video world off guard last week. Disney, it turns out, was blindsided even harder — learning the product was dead less than an hour before everyone else did. A report with details including a $1M-a-day burn rate, a Sora enterprise pilot in progress, compute crunches, and more just shed new light on the AI leader’s sudden shift away from its once-viral platform. Inside Sora's $1M-a-day collapse at OpenAI Microsoft pits Claude against ChatGPT for research Build a travel itinerary with Perplexity Computer Stanford exposes AI's people-pleasing problem 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more OPENAI Image source: Reve / The Rundown The Rundown: A WSJ…
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