Dhaka, March 25 -- On Monday evening, Walt Disney and OpenAI teams were working together on a project linked to Sora, OpenAI's AI video tool. Just 30 minutes after that meeting, the Disney team was blindsided with word that OpenAI was dropping the tool altogether, a person familiar with the matter said.

OpenAI announced the move publicly on Tuesday.

"It was a big rug-pull," according to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter.

The move is the first big step by the ChatGPT maker to focus its business on potentially more lucrative areas such as coding tools and corporate customers.

But the abrupt cancellation of Sora illustrates how messy the streamlining process may become as OpenAI prepares for a stock market debut t...