OpenAI's Studio Ghibli image-generator adds more users than ChatGPT did in 5 days

The release of OpenAI's latest image-generation tool that's powered by the advanced GPT-4o model has taken the internet by storm, with millions of users flocking to the new AI tool to spawn countless new images inspired by the iconic Studio Ghibli art style.

The new image-generation tool is able to take almost any image and recreate it with the art style inspired by Studio Ghibli, created by famed director Hayao Miyazaki, who helmed many highly rated animated movies such as Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro. These images have already taken over the internet with tsunamis of them being posted on multiple social media platforms as users are taking real-life historical events, iconic scenes from other movies, and famous people, and recreating them in the Studio Ghibli art style.

With this massive increase in popularity comes a cost that OpenAI is paying, and that cost is in GPU processing power, which company CEO Sam Altman said a few days ago was so high that OpenAI's GPUs are "melting" under the demand. In fact, the demand was so high that Altman announced that rate limits had to be implemented, and in a follow-up announcement, he pleaded with users to "chill" on generating images as the OpenAI team "needs sleep."

While I'm sure OpenAI's GPUs aren't actually physically melting under the demand, and that teams are getting some sleep but are certainly really busy, Altman gave some hard statistics to visualize this newly found popularity. According to the CEO, when ChatGPT launched 26 months ago, it added 1 million users in just five days, and following the launch of the new image-generation tool, one million users were added in just one hour.