OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently found himself at the centre of an unexpected social media trend, as users began generating Studio Ghibli-style portraits of him using OpenAI’s latest image creation tool. Embracing the development, Altman updated his profile picture and posted on X, “Changed my pfp but maybe someone will make me a better one.”
He followed up with a humorous reflection on his AI journey, highlighting the irony of his work in artificial intelligence being momentarily overshadowed by an internet meme:
“>be me >grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever >mostly no one cares for first 7.5 years, then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything >wake up one day to hundreds of messages: ‘look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha!’”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently found himself at the centre of an unexpected social media trend, as users began generating Studio Ghibli-style portraits of him using OpenAI’s latest image creation tool. Embracing the development, Altman updated his profile picture and posted on X, “Changed my pfp but maybe someone will make me a better one.”
The viral trend stems from OpenAI’s new image generation feature, which has impressed users with its ability to replicate artistic styles, particularly the distinctive hand-drawn aesthetic of Studio Ghibli. The iconic Japanese animation studio, known for classics likeMy Neighbour Totoro andSpirited Away, has long been admired for its intricate animation and storytelling, and AI-generated versions of its style have sparked widespread fascination.
However, the popularity of the feature has exceeded OpenAI’s expectations, leading to delays in making it available to all users. Altman acknowledged this, stating, “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 a while.”
OpenAI announced on Wednesday that ChatGPT’s new built-in image generation feature was being introduced to Plus, Pro, Team, and Free users. However, on Thursday, Sam Altman stated in a post on X that the rollout for Free users would be “delayed for a while.”
Additionally, the company mentioned that the feature would be made available to Enterprise and Edu users through its API in the near future.