OpenAI Rolls Out All-New Image Generator On ChatGPT

OpenAI has introduced an upgraded version of its AI system, GPT-4o, which produces more realistic images, after a year-long development process involving human trainers. GPT-4o now serves as the default image-generation model for ChatGPT, replacing DALL-E 3, and is available to ChatGPT Free, Plus, Team and Pro users, according to the artificial intelligence research organisation.

Announcing the update on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed enthusiasm for the development, stating, “We are launching a new thing today — images in ChatGPT! Two things to say about it: It's an incredible technology/product. I remember seeing some of the first images come out of this model and having a hard time they were really made by AI. We think people will love it, and we are excited to see the resulting creativity.”

He also acknowledged the potential impact of this feature. “This represents a new high-water mark for us in allowing creative freedom.”

He continued, “People are going to create some really amazing stuff and some stuff that may offend people; what we'd like to aim for is that the tool doesn't create offensive stuff unless you want it to, in which case within reason it does. As we talk about in our model spec, we think putting this intellectual freedom and control in the hands of users is the right thing to do, but we will observe how it goes and listen to society.”

“We think respecting the very wide bounds society will eventually choose to set for AI is the right thing to do, and increasingly important as we get closer to AGI. Thanks in advance for the understanding as we work through this,” Altman added.

During a livestream on March 25, Altman described the update as the most significant advancement in ChatGPT’s image-generation capabilities in over a year.

GPT-4o has been at the core of ChatGPT for some time, but its functionality was previously limited to text generation and editing. With this update, the AI can now create and modify images directly within the chat interface.

The new feature is also being incorporated into OpenAI’s AI video-generation tool, Sora, and is currently accessible to Pro plan subscribers, who pay $200 per month. The company has confirmed that Plus and free-tier users, as well as developers using OpenAI’s API, will gain access soon, according to a report in TechCrunch.

To power this feature, OpenAI has used publicly available data and proprietary datasets from partnerships with companies like Shutterstock, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.