TechCrunch 'AI Graveyard' Logs Atlas, Sora, Relay Shutdowns

ChatGPT Atlas, OpenAI's standalone AI-powered web browser, "lasted less than a year before being discontinued on August 9, with its most useful features absorbed into ChatGPT." That is one entry on a list TechCrunch's Lauren Forristal published on October 24 under the heading "AI Graveyard."

The framing is flat: "The result is a growing AI graveyard. Below is a look at some of the most notable AI products, startups, launches, and bets that have shut down, pivoted, or significantly missed expectations."

OpenAI's own casualties dominate the top. Sora, the video app, "struggled with high operating costs and user-retention challenges and shut down in March 2026." The ChatGPT super-app redesign was rolled back in July after users found the new interface "confusing and cluttered." Operator was folded into ChatGPT. DALL-E's role was reduced as image generation moved inside the main product.

Then come the outside names. Relay, a five-year-old workflow automation startup, closed in August 2026: as "OpenAI, Google, and other larger platforms built similar automation directly into their own tools, five-year-old Relay struggled to hold on to a reason to exist as a stand-alone product." Notion Mail is scheduled to shut down on September 22 after users opted for separate AI agents to handle email. Huxe, built by former Google NotebookLM developers, closed in May 2026. Yupp, "a free playground that allowed users to compare responses from hundreds of AI models side by side," closed in March 2026.

Character.ai, which filed for bankruptcy in October, is on the list alongside Apple's $250 million Siri settlement over marketing claims, Microsoft's roughly year-long delay of Recall over privacy concerns, Humane's AI Pin shutdown in February 2025 (assets later going to HP for $116 million), and Rabbit's R1, still on sale but underperforming.

The piece closes on a framing number: per S&P Global Market Intelligence, roughly 42% of corporate AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned, citing "insufficient funding, technical challenges, competition, scaling difficulties, or weak user demand."