The AI graveyard: a running list of projects and startups that didn’t make it — SkimNews
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- Relay, a five-year-old AI workflow automation startup built as an alternative to Zapier, shut down entirely on Monday after OpenAI, Google, and other platforms built similar automation directly into their own tools.
- S&P Global Market Intelligence found about 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by their corporate parents, citing insufficient funding, technical challenges, competition, scaling difficulties, or weak user demand.
- OpenAI rolled back its July 9 ChatGPT "super app" redesign after users called the interface confusing and cluttered, discontinued the ChatGPT Atlas AI browser on August 9 less than a year after launch, and shut down Sora in March 2026 due to high operating costs.
- Apple repeatedly delayed its AI-powered Siri, a delay that contributed to a $250 million settlement over how the company marketed the iPhone 16's AI capabilities; Siri AI finally appeared in the iOS 27 beta in July.
- Microsoft's Recall, announced at Build 2024 as an AI-powered "photographic memory" for Windows, was delayed nearly a year after privacy backlash and a cybersecurity researcher recently built a tool that could still extract captured data after the redesign.
- Humane raised $230 million before shutting down its AI Pin business in February 2025 after warning customers about battery fire risks; HP acquired most of its assets for $116 million.
Why it matters: With 42% of AI initiatives abandoned by corporate parents and standalone startups squeezed out when OpenAI, Google, and Apple fold competing features into their own platforms, the graveyard reveals a structural disadvantage for independent AI products and their investors.
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