Sora head Bill Peebles, as well as the company’s VP of AI for Science, are departing the company. Sora head Bill Peebles, as well as the company’s VP of AI for Science, are departing the company. by Apr 17, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC Image: The Verge Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Last month, OpenAI gave up on its Sora video generation tool , and on Friday, the Sora team’s leader, Bill Peebles, announced that he is leaving the company. OpenAI has been shifting its priorities as part of an effort to avoid “side quests,” and Peebles’ departure is just one of many recent changes as the company moves to focus more on coding and enterprise use. As part of a note Peebles posted on X, he said : I am immensely grateful to Sam, Mark, Aditya and Jakub for fostering a research environment that allowed us to pursue ideas off-the-beaten path from the company’s mainline roadmap.…