Ghibli Art: How Did ChatGPT Make It A Viral Trend

OpenAI's GPT-4 has taken social media by storm with its new image-generating feature, which has sparked a viral trend of creating Ghibli-style portraits. This feature allows users to transform their images into the iconic Japanese animation style of Studio Ghibli, known for its beautiful hand-drawn animation and rich storytelling.

Studio Ghibli is a renowned animation film studio founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki. Some of its most notable films include "My Neighbor Totoro," "Spirited Away," "Howl's Moving Castle," "Kiki's Delivery Service," and "Princess Mononoke."

The new feature is available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers, who can generate stunning anime-style images instantly. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also joined the trend, updating his profile picture on X to a Ghibli-style image and inviting users to create a better one for him via ChatGPT.

However, the rollout of this feature for free users has been delayed due to its unforeseen popularity. Altman announced on X that the feature's rollout to free users would be postponed, citing the need to refine the feature before making it widely available.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined the trend and changed his X profile picture to a Ghibli version of himself. On X, he wrote, ">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.’”

Unlike earlier image generation methods relying on external tools like DALL-E, GPT-4o generates images using its own internal knowledge. OpenAI explained, "Creating and customizing images is as simple as chatting using GPT-4o – just describe what you need, including any specifics like aspect ratio, exact colors using hex codes, or a transparent background." DALL-E remains available separately.