Three AI platform shutdowns in 2026: Sora, GitHub Models, the Assistants API

What closed, with the notice each gave:

• Sora: shutdown announced 2026-03-24; sora.com and the apps closed 2026-04-26; the API, including Sora 2 and Sora 2 Pro endpoints, closes 2026-09-24, after which account data is deleted (official help center via search).
• GitHub Models: closed to new customers in June 2026, full retirement announced 2026-07-01, brownouts on July 16 and 23, retired 2026-07-30 with the playground, model catalog, inference API and bring-your-own-key all gone; GitHub pointed customers to Microsoft Foundry and Copilot models (official changelog via search).
• OpenAI Assistants API: sunset 2026-08-26, with the Responses API as the successor (official docs).

If you built on any of them

• Sora: export generated media before 2026-09-24; the record says data is deleted afterwards.
• GitHub Models: replace the inference endpoint and any CI steps that called it; brownouts were the rehearsal.
• Assistants API: migrate threads and tool definitions to the successor API before dependent features fail.

Where creators earn from AI media in the registry (category 04)

• Higgsfield Earn pays from a weekly pool of about $100,000 with caps of $1,000 on day one and $2,500 lifetime per video (official via search).
• Marketplaces for models and voices are recorded with their terms; distribution-only channels (Hugging Face, Replicate) carry no author revenue share (official by absence).

See the [AI marketplaces category](../category/04.html).