Enrique Abeyta:

OpenAI’s Sora Was the Creepiest App on Your Phone – Now It’s Shutting Down

OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it is shutting down Sora, an "AI-first" social app that launched six months ago. OpenAI did not give a reason for the shut down, nor did it share information about when it will officially be discontinued.

Though the underlying Sora 2 video- and audio-generation model is scarily impressive, there was not sustained interest in an AI-only social feed.

Sora was intended to function like an AI-first TikTok, cloning the recognizable vertical video feed interface. Its flagship feature, “cameos,” allowed people to scan their faces and make realistic deepfakes of themselves. These “cameos” could be made public, allowing anyone to make videos of their “cameo.”

The initial hype around Sora was real. Disney gave OpenAI a $1 billion investment. The app peaked in November with about 3,332,200 downloads across the iOS App Store and Google Play, according to data from the mobile intelligence firm Appfigures. 

If the app continued to grow, then perhaps OpenAI would’ve kept it going, but that’s not what happened. By February, it declined to 1,128,700 downloads. That seems like a big number, until you remember that ChatGPT has 900 million weekly active users.

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Greg Guenthner:

Bitcoin Retakes $71K as U.S. Sends Iran 15-Point Ceasefire Plan

Bitcoin rose as much as 4% to an intraday high of $71,300 from Tuesday’s low of $68,890, recouping all the losses incurred the day prior.

BTC reacted to news that the U.S., through the primary intermediary Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir (Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff), has sent Iran a 15-point plan aimed at ending the war.

The key elements of the plan include: a temporary ceasefire with calls on Iran to dismantle or severely limit its nuclear program, suspend its ballistic-missile work, and the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz for safe maritime traffic.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to deny any ongoing talks as Trump delayed his self-imposed deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Following the news, WTI crude oil dropped 5.75% to $87 per barrel, while Brent crude shed 6% to trade at $98. Gold extended yesterday’s gains, now up 2.53% on the day to trade at $4,561 at the time of writing.

This move eases inflation fears tied to disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, positively impacting risk assets, including Bitcoin.

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Ray Blanco:

Microsoft, NVIDIA Unite To Create Digital Ecosystem for Accelerating Nuclear Reactor Deployment

Microsoft and NVIDIA have announced a collaboration to build an ecosystem of AI-powered digital engineering tools. These tools are designed to accelerate nuclear reactor deployment timelines without sacrificing safety.

The partnership will take center stage this week at CERAWeek 2026, where the tech giants, alongside nuclear plant manufacturer Aalo Atomics, will present their vision for a “Digital Age for Nuclear.”

Currently, nuclear projects often experience years of construction delays due to analog era bottlenecks like fragmented data, manual regulatory reviews, and highly customized engineering.

The collaboration aims to solve these bottlenecks by providing a set of digital engineering tools to facilitate site permitting, construction, operations and maintenance phases of the reactor lifecycle.

It has already yielded massive efficiency gains: Aalo Atomics reported a staggering 92% reduction in the time required for the permitting process, saving an estimated $80 million annually.

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