Sam Altman Reveals Sora Shutdown Cost Disney $1B Investment — Says AI Is 'Good for Hollywood'

Variety·medium signal

In a Variety interview published April 21, Sam Altman revealed he informed Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro that OpenAI was closing the Sora video generation platform before Disney could launch characters in the system, calling it 'terrible.' Disney subsequently cancelled its $1 billion investment in OpenAI. Despite this, Altman maintains AI will benefit Hollywood and 'get people to care more about human creators, not less' — a stance that will test well against the backdrop of industry-wide AI labor anxiety.