内容来源：https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/24/the-ai-graveyard-a-running-list-of-projects-and-startups-that-didnt-make-it/

内容总结：

过去几年，人工智能行业在资本热潮中涌现出大量产品和创业公司，但随着大型平台将类似功能直接内置到自身产品中，以及资金、技术、竞争和用户需求等多重压力显现，一批AI产品、功能和项目相继关停、收缩或未能达到预期，形成了一片不断扩大的“AI坟场”。据标普全球市场情报数据，约42%的企业AI项目最终被母公司放弃。

即便是头部企业也未能幸免。OpenAI曾尝试将ChatGPT改版为集聊天、编程、办公于一体的“超级应用”，但因界面混乱遭到用户批评，随后被迫回滚。该公司还陆续将多个独立产品和功能并入ChatGPT，包括独立AI浏览器ChatGPT Atlas、可代用户浏览网页并完成任务的AI智能体Operator，以及图像生成工具DALL-E的独立入口；视频分享平台Sora也因运营成本高、用户留存难而关停。苹果在2024年发布Apple Intelligence时高调宣传升级版Siri，但新Siri因工程和漏洞问题多次跳票，还引发围绕iPhone 16 AI功能宣传的集体诉讼，最终以2.5亿美元和解。微软2024年推出的Recall功能可定期截屏记录用户操作，因隐私和安全争议被迫推迟近一年，改版后仍有安全研究者演示可提取其截取的数据。Notion Mail于2025年4月推出，主打AI邮件整理与自动化，但用户更倾向使用独立AI智能体处理邮箱，该产品定于9月22日关停。AI硬件方面，Humane AI Pin曾融资2.3亿美元，但因性能不佳及充电盒电池起火风险，于2025年2月关停相关业务，大部分资产被惠普以1.16亿美元收购；Rabbit R1在2024年CES亮相后销量达10万台，但早期评测认为产品完成度低、性能不稳定、可用集成有限，公司随后转向将其定位为可执行智能体任务的计算机控制器，并公布新硬件项目“Project Cyberdeck”。此外，AI音频应用Huxe因大型平台推出类似功能于2026年5月关停；AI模型对比平台Yupp一度支持测试800多个模型，但因产品市场契合度不足于2026年3月关停；AI角色互动平台Figgs AI在2023年至2024年运营期间用户超过100万，但因免费模式成本过高而关闭。Character.ai由前谷歌研究员创立，2023年以10亿美元估值融资1.5亿美元，次年谷歌以据报道27亿美元许可其技术并招回创始人；此后该平台面临青少年自杀和自残相关诉讼以及迪士尼侵权警告，2025年底禁止18岁以下用户进行开放式聊天，2026年初与谷歌同意和解多起诉讼，但仍于10月初申请破产，迪士尼成为部分知识产权许可的初始竞标者，出价2000万美元，应用在出售过程中继续运营，交易预计于11月底或12月初完成。

中文翻译：

Relay是一款以AI驱动的工作流自动化工具，定位为Zapier的替代品，于今年8月彻底关停。该产品让用户借助AI智能体实现邮件和任务工作流的自动化，但随着OpenAI、谷歌等 larger平台将类似自动化功能直接内置于自家工具中，这家运营了五年的公司难以维系其作为独立产品存在的理由。
更近的例子是，聊天机器人平台Character.ai在推出仅五年后便申请破产。
除Character.ai和Relay之外，许多AI项目甚至在打造它们的公司内部都未能存活。据标普全球市场财智的数据，约42%的AI计划最终被其母公司放弃。原因各不相同：资金不足、技术挑战、竞争、规模化困难，或仅仅是用户需求疲软。
其结果是一座不断扩大的AI坟场。以下梳理了一些最值得关注的AI产品、初创公司、发布项目和押注，它们或被关停、或被迫转型、或严重未达预期。与其将其视为一份失败记分卡，不如把它当作一份记录——记录这些尝试能给行业其余参与者带来哪些（但愿有用的）教训。
OpenAI也屡有失手
即便是最大的玩家也无法幸免。OpenAI作为全球最具价值的私营公司之一，也有自己的伤亡和失误。较近的例子之一是其试图将ChatGPT打造成更广泛的“超级应用”。7月9日，OpenAI更新了该应用，将多种体验整合在一起，包括独立的“Chat”、“Codex”和“Work”模式，同时将用户熟悉的传统版本更名为“ChatGPT Classic”。
这次改版迅速招致用户批评，他们认为新界面令人困惑且杂乱，OpenAI随后不久便撤回了这一改动，恢复了熟悉的ChatGPT界面。
这并非OpenAI唯一一次试图将所有功能集于一身。该公司还关停了多款独立应用，并将其功能直接并入ChatGPT——这一策略的效果比改版要好。ChatGPT Atlas是一款独立的AI驱动网页浏览器，上线不到一年便于8月9日停用，其最有用的功能被并入ChatGPT。
该公司对Operator也采取了同样的做法——Operator是一款能够代替用户浏览网页并完成任务的AI智能体。此外，OpenAI越来越多地将图像生成功能直接内置于ChatGPT，使DALL-E作为独立图像创作入口的角色不断萎缩。
我们也不能忘记其视频分享平台Sora，该平台因高昂的运营成本和用户留存难题而苦苦挣扎，于2026年3月关停。
苹果的Siri AI
2024年苹果发布Apple Intelligence时，改进版Siri是重点宣传的功能之一。其承诺是Siri能够理解上下文、知晓各应用中的动态，并高效完成任务。
然而，苹果多次推迟新Siri的发布，给出的理由包括工程问题和程序错误等。这一延迟最终导致苹果就iPhone 16 AI功能的营销方式达成2.5亿美元的和解。
Siri AI终于在去年7月的iOS 27测试版中亮相，新的AI驱动版本于本月率先向英语用户推出；其他语言的支持预计将随后跟进。
微软的Recall
微软在2024年Build开发者大会上宣布了Recall功能，将其定位为Windows PC的AI驱动“照片式记忆”，会定期截取用户操作画面，以便日后搜索自己的数字历史记录。
不出所料，该消息一经公布便立即引发了对隐私和安全的强烈反对。批评者认为，Recall可能创建一个可搜索的高度敏感信息档案，包括密码、私人消息、财务细节和其他活动。微软将该功能推迟了近一年，以便有时间重新审视其安全和隐私保护措施。
即便经过重新设计，争议也并未消散。一位网络安全研究员近日开发了一款工具，能够提取并展示Recall所捕获的数据，再次引发了对微软是否真正修复了根本问题的质疑。
Notion Mail
Notion Mail于2025年4月推出，是一款以AI为核心的邮件产品，旨在帮助用户整理和自动化管理收件箱。然而，该公司发现用户实际上在使用独立的AI智能体来处理邮件收件箱。因此，Notion Mail定于9月22日关停。
Humane AI Pin
Humane AI Pin可能是AI硬件领域最广为人知的失败案例之一。该产品旨在通过可穿戴设备而非传统智能手机提供AI功能，Humane从投资者处筹集了2.3亿美元，并获得了大量关注。
但该产品在性能方面举步维艰，情况进一步恶化的是，Humane警告用户停止使用其充电盒，因为存在电池起火风险。Humane随后于2025年2月关停了其AI Pin业务，公司大部分资产被惠普以1.16亿美元收购。
Rabbit R1
Rabbit R1是另一款被大肆炒作的AI设备。这款AI伴侣于2024年1月在CES上亮相，旨在代替主人执行任务。Rabbit称其上市后不久便售出了10万台。
然而，强劲的初期销量并不意味着产品过硬。早期评测将该设备描述为半成品，性能不可靠，可用的实用集成屈指可数。
不过该公司并未放弃。它持续更新R1，将其定位为能够执行智能体任务的计算机控制器。该公司最近还宣布了一个新的硬件项目，名为“Project Cyberdeck”，旨在打造一款专为氛围编程而生的便携设备。
Huxe
Huxe是一款AI音频应用，由谷歌NotebookLM的前开发者打造，可将书面信息转化为对话式、播客风格的音频。
该公司于2026年5月关停，部分原因是 larger平台开始向庞大的现有用户群提供类似体验。例如，Spotify一直在扩展其自家的AI音频工具。
Yupp
Yupp是一款有趣的AI产品：一个免费的试验场，让用户并排比较数百个AI模型的回答。用户还可以对回答进行投票，并通过该平台赚取加密货币。
在巅峰时期，该平台让用户测试超过800个模型，包括来自OpenAI、谷歌和Anthropic等公司的模型。但据其创始人称，Yupp始终未能实现足够强的产品市场契合度以维持生存。该平台于2026年3月关停。
Figgs AI
Figgs AI于2023年至2024年间运营，让用户创建可定制的AI角色并与之互动，用于角色扮演和故事创作。据报道，该平台吸引了超过100万用户，但其开发者表示，维持免费服务的成本变得过高而难以持续，于是将其关停。
Character.ai
Character.ai由前谷歌研究员诺姆·沙泽尔和丹尼尔·德弗雷塔斯于2021年创立，通过让人们与可定制的机器人聊天而成为备受热议的消费级AI应用，其中许多机器人以名人和虚构角色为原型。该公司于2023年以10亿美元估值完成了1.5亿美元融资。次年，谷歌据报道支付27亿美元获得其技术授权，并将其创始人招致麾下，留下这家初创公司独自前行。
此后麻烦接踵而至。多个家庭提起诉讼，指控这些聊天机器人导致了青少年自杀和自残事件，迪士尼也就其角色被未经授权使用一事发出了停止侵权函。Character.ai去年年底禁止18岁以下用户进行开放式聊天，并于2026年初与谷歌一同同意就多起诉讼达成和解。但这还不够。该公司于10月初申请破产，理由是法律、监管和运营方面的不利因素。颇具讽刺意味的是，迪士尼如今成为首轮竞标者，出价2000万美元获得其部分知识产权的授权。该应用在破产程序期间仍在运营，出售预计将于11月底或12月初完成。

英文来源：

Relay, an AI-powered workflow automation tool built as an alternative to Zapier, shut down entirely in August. The product let users automate email and task workflows using AI agents, but 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.
More recently, chatbot platform Character.ai filed for bankruptcy just five years after launching.
Aside from Character.ai and Relay, plenty of AI bets never even survive inside the companies that build them. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, about 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by their corporate parents. The reasons vary: insufficient funding, technical challenges, competition, difficulty scaling, or just weak user demand.
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. Think of it less as a scorecard of flops than as a record of what these attempts can (hopefully) teach the rest of the industry.
OpenAI has taken several stumbles
Even the biggest players aren’t immune. OpenAI, one of the most valuable private companies in the world, has had its own share of casualties and missteps. One of the more recent examples was its attempt to turn ChatGPT into a broader “super app.” On July 9, OpenAI updated the app to combine several experiences, including separate “Chat,” “Codex,” and “Work” modes, while renaming the traditional, familiar version “ChatGPT Classic.”
The redesign quickly drew criticism from users who found the new interface confusing and cluttered, and OpenAI rolled back the change soon after, bringing the familiar ChatGPT interface back.
That wasn’t OpenAI’s only attempt to pull everything under one roof. The company has also shut down several stand-alone apps and folded their features directly into ChatGPT — a strategy that’s worked out better than the redesign did. ChatGPT Atlas, a stand-alone AI-powered web browser, lasted less than a year before being discontinued on August 9, with its most useful features absorbed into ChatGPT.
The company did the same thing with Operator, an AI agent that could browse the web and complete tasks on a user’s behalf, and OpenAI has increasingly built image generation directly into ChatGPT, shrinking the role of DALL-E as its own separate destination for creating images.
We also can’t forget its video-sharing platform, Sora, which struggled with high operating costs and user-retention challenges and shut down in March 2026.
Apple’s Siri AI
When Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence in 2024, an improved Siri was one of the highlighted features. The pitch promised a Siri that could understand context, know what was happening across apps, and get tasks done effectively.
However, Apple repeatedly pushed back the release of the new Siri, citing various reasons like engineering issues and bugs. This delay eventually contributed to a $250 million settlement over claims regarding how Apple marketed the AI capabilities of the iPhone 16.
Siri AI finally appeared in the iOS 27 beta this past July, with the new AI-powered version rolling out to English-language users first this month; support for other languages is expected to follow.
Microsoft’s Recall
Announced at its 2024 Build developer conference, Microsoft’s Recall feature was pitched as an AI-powered “photographic memory” for Windows PCs, periodically taking screenshots of what a user was doing so they could later search back through their own digital history.
Predictably, the announcement triggered an immediate backlash over privacy and security. Critics argued that Recall could create a searchable archive of highly sensitive information, including passwords, private messages, financial details, and other activity. Microsoft delayed the feature for nearly a year, giving the company time to rethink its security and privacy protections.
Even after a redesign, the controversy hasn’t gone away. A cybersecurity researcher recently built a tool that could extract and display data that Recall had captured, reviving questions about whether Microsoft has actually fixed the underlying problem.
Notion Mail
Notion Mail launched in April 2025 as an AI-focused email product designed to help users organize and automate their inboxes. However, the company noticed its users were using separate AI agents to handle their email inboxes instead. As a result, Notion Mail is scheduled to shut down on September 22.
Humane AI Pin
The Humane AI Pin is probably one of the most well-known failures in AI hardware. Designed to provide AI features through a wearable device rather than a traditional smartphone, Humane raised $230 million from investors and garnered significant attention.
But the product struggled mightily with performance, and the situation worsened when Humane warned customers to stop using its charging case because of a potential battery fire risk. Humane then shut down its AI Pin business in February 2025, with most of the company’s assets acquired by HP for $116 million.
Rabbit R1
The Rabbit R1 was another heavily hyped AI device. Unveiled at CES in January 2024, the AI companion was designed to perform tasks on behalf of its owner. Rabbit said it had sold 100,000 units shortly after launch.
However, strong initial sales didn’t mean it was a strong product. Early reviews described the device as unfinished, with unreliable performance and a limited number of useful integrations.
The company hasn’t given up, though. It has continued updating the R1, positioning it as a computer controller capable of performing agentic tasks. It also recently announced a new hardware project, dubbed “Project Cyberdeck,” aimed at creating a portable device built for vibe-coding.
Huxe
Huxe was an AI audio app, built by former developers of Google’s NotebookLM, that turned written information into conversational, podcast-style audio.
The company shut down in May 2026, partly as larger platforms began offering similar experiences to large existing audiences. For instance, Spotify has been expanding its own AI-powered audio tools.
Yupp
Yupp was an interesting AI product: a free playground that allowed users to compare responses from hundreds of AI models side by side. Users could also vote on responses and earn cryptocurrency through the platform.
At its peak, the platform let users test more than 800 models, including from companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. But according to its founders, Yupp never achieved strong enough product-market fit to survive. The platform shut down in March 2026.
Figgs AI
Figgs AI operated from 2023 to 2024, letting users create and interact with customizable AI characters for role-play and storytelling. The platform reportedly drew more than 1 million users, but its developers said keeping the service free became too expensive to sustain, and they shut it down.
Character.ai
Founded in 2021 by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.ai became a buzzed-about consumer AI app by letting people chat with customizable bots, many of them modeled on celebrities and fictional characters. It raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation in 2023. Then, the next year, Google paid a reported $2.7 billion to license its technology and bring its founders back into its orbit, leaving the startup to carry on without them.
The trouble piled up after that. Families sued, alleging the chatbots contributed to teen suicides and self-harm, and Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter over unauthorized use of its characters. Character.ai barred under-18 users from open-ended chats late last year and agreed to settle several of the suits, along with Google, in early 2026. But it wasn’t enough. The company filed for bankruptcy in early October, citing legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds. In an ironic twist, Disney is now the opening bidder, offering $20 million for a license to some of its intellectual property. The app is still running during the process, and the sale is expected to wrap up by late November or early December.