OpenAI is delaying the rollout of ChatGPT’s latest image generation features, Images in ChatGPT, for users on its free subscription tier, CEO Sam Altman said in an X post on Wednesday.
The reason why? It’s too “popular.”
“images in chatgpt are wayyyy more popular than we expected (and we had pretty high expectations). rollout to our free tier is unfortunately going to be delayed for awhile,” Altman wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it will be integrating its latest image-generation technology into its GPT-4o model chatbots, making them a one-stop shop for artificially generated content.
At the time of the release, OpenAI said one of the biggest advancements in the chatbot’s image ability is in the quality of its text rendering abilities. The company claims its systems can now generate images with text that is meaningful and readable — not warped and typo-ridden.
OpenAI also boasted in the press release that the image generator is now better at following instructions, especially when users upload images as visual inspirations.
This latter feature ended up being the real star of the show for users. ChatGPT had a viral moment on Wednesday as people started sharing pictures of themselves in the distinct style of Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli. Co-created by famous Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli is behind famous animation films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.
While he hasn’t commented on the recent trend, Miyazaki has in the past spoken out against AI-generated animation. In a documentary feature published in 2016, Miyazaki said he was “utterly disgusted” and called the technology “an insult to life itself.” And when told that the goal of AI animation is to “draw pictures like humans do,” Miyazaki said that he felt “like we are nearing to the end of the times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.”
Even Sam Altman himself jumped on the viral trend, changing his X profile picture to a ChatGPT-generated photo of himself in the style of Ghibli, as social media users flocked to ChatGPT to create their own versions.
While the feature is no longer available for free users, at least for now, it is still accessible for ChatGPT’s plus, pro, and team subscription tiers. The company said the feature will also roll out soon for enterprise and educational users, as well as for developers using the API.
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