AI video update: everything that changed this month (April 2026)

A LOT happened in the AI video space this month and most people missed it. here's the quick rundown of what matters for us as creators 👇

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🔴 SORA IS DEAD

OpenAI is shutting down Sora on April 26. That's in 5 days. The app and web interface go offline permanently. API access stays until September but the product is done.

Why? It was losing money — reportedly $15M/day in compute costs against only $2.1M in total lifetime revenue. The math never worked.

If you were using Sora, migrate now. Seedance, Kling, or Veo are your options.

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🟢 ALIBABA DROPPED A BOMB: HAPPYHORSE 1.0

Alibaba quietly released a model called HappyHorse 1.0 on April 7. Within 3 days it hit #1 on the video leaderboard, beating Seedance 2.0 by the biggest margin in leaderboard history.

It processes text, image, video, and audio ALL in one pass (most models do these separately). The lip-sync accuracy is insane. Not publicly available via API yet, but watch this one closely.

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🔵 SEEDANCE 2.0 IS NOW IN THE US

Big update — Seedance 2.0 is now rolling out in the US through CapCut. Previously it was blocked there. But there are restrictions: no real-face image-to-video, no unauthorized IP generation, and all output gets invisible watermarks.

For those of us outside the US, nothing changes. Sjinn AI and Dreamina still work the same way.

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🟡 KLING 3.0 IS THE BUDGET KING

Kling 3.0 launched with native 4K output at roughly $0.50 per clip. That's the cheapest high-quality option in the market right now. If you're doing high volume content and budget matters, Kling 3.0 is worth testing.

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🟣 VEO 3.1 GOT A FREE TIER

Google quietly added a free tier to Veo 3.1 through Google Vids: 10 clips per month, 8 seconds each, 720p. Not amazing specs but it's FREE and it's Google quality. Good for testing and experimenting.

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📊 THE BIG PICTURE

Stanford's 2026 AI Index says generative AI has hit 53% global adoption in just 3 years — faster than the PC or the internet at the same stage. 70% of companies are now using it in at least one function. This isn't "the future" anymore, it's happening right now.

The AI video market alone is valued at $8.5 billion in 2026 and growing 20%+ per year.

For creators: the window to be early is closing fast. In 6 months the tools will be easier to use and everyone will be doing it. The advantage is learning the prompting systems NOW while most people are still figuring out which tool to use.

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my current stack hasn't changed:

→ Seedance 2.0 for cinematic video (still #1 for what we do)

→ Nano Banana 2 for start frames

→ CapCut for editing

→ ChatGPT / Claude for prompt writing

but I'm keeping an eye on HappyHorse and Kling 3.0. will test both this week and share results.

questions about any of these? drop them below 👇

— Ilyar

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