The artificial intelligence video app that was supposed to put filmmakers out of work is being switched off. OpenAI is winding down Sora, and if you are a Malaysian creator who built any part of your workflow on it, the clock matters: the last piece, its developer interface, goes dark on 24 September 2026. The more useful question, now that the dust has settled, is which AI video generator actually won, and whether any of it changes what you should be doing with a camera.
Sora launched in late 2024 as the tool that would make anyone a director from a text box. Less than two years later OpenAI began switching it off: the website and app went dark in April, and the developer interface, the last piece still running, closes on 24 September 2026. As eMarketer reported, the app never found its footing, drawing roughly 2.1 million US dollars in lifetime revenue against heavy running costs, running into copyright disputes that saw Disney exit a partnership, and no longer fitting a company trimming down for a public listing.
Editor
Dinesh Raj chevron_right
Table of Contents
The AI video generator Malaysians should use now
The winner of the AI video race, for the moment, is Google. Veo, now on version 3.1, is widely rated the strongest model available, generates its own synchronised sound rather than leaving you a silent clip, and already sits inside tools Malaysians open daily: the Gemini app and YouTube Shorts. Google has opened Veo to developers through its Gemini API, and access for creators starts at about 20 US dollars a month on its AI Pro plan. Kuaishou's Kling and Runway are the serious alternatives, the first on price, the second on fine control.
None of that replaces knowing how to edit. A generated clip still has to be cut, colour graded and scored, and our guides to the best free video editing software on a PC and the best editing apps on a phone are a cheaper first step than any subscription.
Why the craft still beats the tool
Here is the part the Sora hype missed. What stops someone scrolling is not that a video was generated, it is that it was good. We learned this the plain way. A reel we made recreating a music video on nothing but a phone took 18,018 views, against a previous best of 224. No AI model produced that. Framing, timing and a real idea did.
It is also why the industry is moving to label synthetic media rather than celebrate it. We covered how AI music is now being watermarked so it can be traced, and the same pressure is coming for video. For a creator here, the lesson is not to chase whichever model leads this quarter. It is that the skill, shot on a phone you already own, is the part nobody can discontinue. If you want to build it, our own Pocket Cinematic course teaches the phone-first method behind that reel.
Sora's shutdown is not the death of AI video. Veo will keep improving and others will follow. But it is a clean reminder that the tool is the cheap part. What you point it at, and whether you can still tell a story once the novelty wears off, remains the whole game.
Images courtesy of Dmitriy Frantsev, Rohit Kumar and Denny Müller on Unsplash.
