‘GPUs are melting’: OpenAI limits ChatGPT’s image generation feature after viral Ghibli image trend

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke Thursday about the toll the viral Ghibli-style image trend has taken on his company's resources. Altman wrote in a post on X that OpenAI's "GPUs are melting" and that the company is introducing some temporary speed limits on the native image generation feature.

"it's super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt. but our GPUs are melting. we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long! ChatGPT free tier will get 3 generations per day soon." Altman wrote in his post

“Also, we are refusing some generations that should be allowed; we are fixing these as fast we can.” the OpenAI CEO added.

What is Ghibli image trend?

Notably, OpenAI rolled out its native image generation feature recently that allows users to take advantage of the ChatGPT's image generation capabilities to create more nuanced pictures and also edit their current images.

Since then, users on social media have been converting their images in the style of Studio Ghibli animation, turning their precious moments into the popular Japanese anime. The trend has gained a lot of traction on social media, leading to even Altman replacing his profile picture on X with a Ghibli style portrait.

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.

Who can use OpenAI's new image generation tool?

OpenAI said on Wednesday that ChaGPT's new native image generation feature was rolling out to Plus, Pro, Team and Free users of the chatbot on Wednesday.

Altman in an earlier post has also confirmed that the rollout of this feature for free users has been "delayed for a while".

OpenAI updates GPT-4o:

Altman also announced on Thursday that the ChatGPT maker is providing an update to GPT-4o - the best free pre-trained model by the company.

“New version of GPT-4o particularly good at coding, instruction following, and freedom.” Altman wrote in a post on X.