ChatGPT’s Ghibli image craze sparks ‘biblical demand’, Sam Altman asks users to slow down

OpenAI's new image-generating update for ChatGPT has led to a frenzy of Ghibli-style images being posted all over the internet. However, the AI startup's CEO Sam Altman has now asked users to 'chill out' as the demand for ChatGPT's new update is putting a strain on his team.

“Can yall please chill on generating images this is insane our team needs sleep” Altman wrote in a post on X.

In reply to another post, Altman delved into the toll the new ChatGPT update has taken on his company. He wrote, “We just haven’t been able to catch up since launch so people are still working to keep the service up. biblical demand, i have never seen anything like it”

However, this is not the first time Altman has complained that ChatGPT's native image generation feature is putting a strain on the company's resources. Just a few days ago, the entrepreneur announced limits on image generation even for ChatGPT Plus and Pro users, citing that OpenAI's "GPUs are melting".

What is the new ChatGPT image update?

ChatGPT has had the ability to generate images using text prompts for some time, but the new native image generation capability unlocked by OpenAI for the GPT-4o model allows the chatbot to generate more nuanced and accurate images.

While ChatGPT used to depend on external models such as DALL-E 3 for image generation, it is now done through the same large language model (LLM) that answers all other text queries. This allows the chatbot to use its textual knowledge base to better understand the user's query and generate the images accordingly.

OpenAI started the native image generation update with ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Team users, but free users also have the option to "Ghiblize" their images now. While the Studio Ghibli-style image trend has taken off, the chatbot is also capable of creating a host of other images, including comics, posters, presentations and infographics.

What is Studio Ghibli?

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio founded in 1985 by Miyazaki Hayao, Takahata Isao and Suzuki Toshio. The company is known for its high-quality filmmaking with hand-drawn animation and rich storytelling.

Some of the company's most notable animated films include Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke.

The studio's films are celebrated for their dreamlike landscapes, soft colour palettes, and deeply human storytelling. The labour-intensive, hand-drawn approach of Ghibli animators has long been considered the gold standard in traditional animation.