Weekly Tech Recap: Ghibli-style AI images overload ChatGPT, Google releases Gemini 2.5 Pro for free and more

While ChatGPT's new image generator dominated the headlines this week, there were a few other important things happening as well: Google rolled out its Gemini 2.5 Pro model to all users, WhatsApp can now be set as the default calling and messaging app on iPhones, and Instagram introduced a fast-forward option for reels. Let's take a look at the top 5technology-related news of the week.

Top tech news of the week:

1) ChatGPT goes down after viral Studio Ghibli trend:

ChatGPT briefly went offline on Sunday, hours after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked users to slow down image generation. OpenAI had unlocked ChatGPT's native image generation capabilities, allowing the chatbot to create more nuanced and accurate images than when it relied on DALL-E to generate images.

Soon after, social media users began using ChatGPT to convert their real-life images in Studio Ghibli style. This trend led to OpenAI limiting image generation capabilities even for ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers due to the growing load on the company's GPUs.

2) Google rolls out Gemini 2.5 Pro model for all users:

While the world was going gaga over ChatGPT's new image generation capabilities, Google was quietly rolling out its latest language model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, to all users. This is a reasoning model similar to OpenAI's o3 Mini or DeepSeek R1, meaning it tries to mimic human-level reasoning before answering a query.

The new model is currently the top-ranked chatbot on LMArena, an open-source platform developed by researchers at UC Berkley SkyLab. It also achieved an accuracy score of 18.8% in Humanity's Last Exam, compared to 14% for OpenAI o3 Mini (High) and 8.6% for DeepSeek R1.

Gemini 2.5 Pro is proficient in reasoning, common coding, math and science-related tasks. It also has a high context window of 1 million token which roughly translates to 7,50,000 words, compared to the 5,00,000 token context window offered by Claude 3.7 Sonnett and 2,00,000 token context window of o3 Mini.

3) Grok AI takes center stage amid Studio Ghibli trend:

xAI's Grok 3 is currently one of the best text-to-image generation models available for free and without much censorship from the company. The chatbot became a popular alternative this week when users trying to create Studio Ghibli-style images on ChatGPT hit a paywall and used it to convert their images into the popular Japanese anime format.

4) Instagram users can now fast-forward reels:

Instagram is now giving users the option to fast-forward their reels by playing them at 2x speed, by long pressing on either side of the screen while playing the reels. The new feature has been rolled out to all Instagram users, and is one of many additions to the Meta-owned app coming straight from Tik Tok.

5) WhatsApp can now be set as default messaging and calling app on iPhones:

WhatsApp has rolled out its latest update, version 25.8.74, which allows iPhone users to set the Meta-owned app as their default choice for messaging and calling.

Once WhatsApp is set as the default for messaging/ calls, their iPhone will automatically launch the app when users initiate a call or send a message, bypassing Apple's built-in Messages and Phone/FaceTime apps.