OpenAI switched off its video API on Thursday. If any part of your brand’s video production still called Sora, it stopped working on 24 September — and OpenAI named no replacement. That is today’s lead, and it is a supplier lesson, not a model story.
OpenAI’s Sora video API is gone, with no successor
OpenAI removed the Videos API and every sora-2 and sora-2-pro model on 24 September 2026, six months after the notice; its deprecation page lists no replacement. The same page retires the gpt-image-1 family on 1 December in favour of gpt-image-2 (OpenAI deprecations).
My read: never let one vendor own a production pipeline. My Christmas greeting film for Shirin Asal ran on Nano Banana stills and Kling sequences, cut in CapCut — every link in that chain can be swapped in a day. If an agency quote names a single model, ask what happens when it disappears. This week, one did.
Google puts a lip-synced, real-time avatar in Gemini Enterprise
Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar launched on 24 September: live dialogue with a talking avatar that keeps lip-sync across 97 languages, with every frame watermarked by SynthID. Custom avatars are allowlist-only for now (Google, 24 Sep).
My read: for Gulf brands this is the first credible route to one spokesperson answering customers in Arabic and English. Two checks before it goes near a brief. Google does not publish which 97 languages, so test Gulf Arabic yourself. And a brand face needs a signed likeness agreement before anyone clones it — legal will ask, so ask first.
ElevenLabs now sells Veo, Seedance and Nano Banana through one API
ElevenLabs’ Image & Video API runs Veo 3.1, Seedance 2 and 2.5, gpt-image-2 and Google’s Gemini image models from one credit balance, on Pro plans and above (ElevenLabs docs, 25 Sep).
My read: voice, picture and motion on one invoice is genuinely useful for an in-house team — one procurement round, one contract. It is also lock-in with a friendly face. Keep storyboards and prompts model-agnostic, so the bill can move when the next shutdown comes.
Midjourney’s editor now changes only the pixels you select
Midjourney’s 24 September update makes inpainting and outpainting touch only the selected area, adds live style previews, and removes the seams from --tile on V8.1 and V8.2 (Midjourney, 24 Sep).
My read: this is the pack-shot fix. Key visuals die when a retouch softens the logo on the pack; a selection-only edit protects the label. I would still finish packaging outside the model — the pack is the one thing a shopper has to recognise on the shelf.
What I’d do today
Open every live production quote and list the models it depends on. Anything built on Sora is already broken. Anything built on a single model is next. If you want a pipeline that survives a shutdown, here is how I scope one.
Sources
- OpenAI — API deprecations: Sora 2 / Videos API shutdown 24 Sep 2026 (notice 24 Mar 2026); gpt-image-1 family shutdown 1 Dec 2026 — developers.openai.com
- Google — Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar, 24 Sep 2026 — blog.google
- ElevenLabs — Image & Video API guide, 25 Sep 2026 — elevenlabs.io
- Midjourney — Edit updates, thumbnail previews and more, 24 Sep 2026 — updates.midjourney.com