ChatGPT-4o image gen is rewiring the way we make art

According to sources like Similarweb, since OpenAI launched ChatGPT-4o’s new image generation feature in March 2025, more than 150 million images have been generated through the platform's new built-in image tools. That's over 5 million visuals a day, or roughly one new surrealist masterpiece for every time you blink. Much of this comes from the fact that the ChatGPT 4o new image generator alone added 1 million users in just an hour.

Across the wider AI art ecosystem, the numbers are even more ridiculous. Even last year in 2024, platforms like Midjourney, DALL·E, and Firefly are collectively pumping out more than 34 million images daily.

And people aren't just playing around. OpenAI's internal data shows a 290% increase in image generation usage inside ChatGPT between January and March 2025. And over 62% of those images aren't just collecting digital dust. They're getting dropped into pitch decks, marketing campaigns, design prototypes, and storyboards.

The art robots aren’t coming. They are already here.

From blank canvas to mind-blowing images

ChatGPT-4o is becoming more collaborative while also becoming smarter. You can now drop in a prompt, upload an image as reference, and even include text that is actually readable. Want to tweak the shadows? Cool. Want to swap out the background? Done. Want your character to "Look like a plastic sports memorabilia"? No problem.

This is the moment where creativity stops being gated by technical ability. If you can dream it, you can prompt it.

From simple AI images to creative infrastructure

The big shift isn't just volume. It's utility.

A quick scroll through X will highlight how many of these generated images are used in branding, marketing, editorial layouts, or storyboarding. This is professional-grade visual output made in minutes.

So, instead of sweating over a pitch deck for six hours, you now have time to actually rehearse it. Instead of spending your Friday night masking hair in Photoshop, you're free to explore ten different art directions, or just eat dinner.

What we're looking at isn't just faster content. It's a brand new creative process, and it's only the beginning. As Salma said in her tweet above, this is the worst version of our new AI reality. Things will only get better and more powerful from here. So, while we are blown away with GPT-4o is doing now, just imagine what the next few years will hold.

Prompt-based design is brainstorming in real-time. It's iteration without pain. It's the fastest way to get ideas out of your head and into a shareable visual format, without having to ask a designer friend for a "quick favor" that turns into 12 rounds of revisions.

Is it art or theft? The Ghibli controversy

One prompt: "A forest spirit in Ghibli style." Seconds later, you've got a dreamy, misty frame that looks like Miyazaki storyboarded it himself. It's gorgeous. It's surreal. And yeah—it's sparked a ton of backlash.

Critics argue that models like ChatGPT-4o are mimicking copyrighted styles—like Studio Ghibli's—without consent or credit. Meanwhile, Miyazaki, never one to sugarcoat, back in 2016 called AI art "an insult to life itself."

It's a bigger conversation about authorship and style ownership. Is it homage or theft? Innovation or imitation? The tech doesn't "copy," but it doesn't exactly ask permission either. And when a machine can remix decades of visual language in a blink, the ethical line gets blurry real fast.

Creativity that might come with a cost

While the tools feel magical, the ethics are still catching up. These models were trained on mountains of data—much of it scraped from the internet without asking who made it or how they feel about their work being used.

That raises the big question: who gets credit when creativity is crowdsourced by code? What are the ethics behind this ultra-powerful creative advancement?

Artists worry about exploitation. Developers talk about “fair use.” And somewhere in between, we’ve built a system that rewards output but rarely pauses to ask who gets left out—or left behind. The tech is moving fast, but the conversations about consent, compensation, and creative labor is still unsolved. And, truthfully, it’s a sticky situation that will need time and likely a good amount of effort to fully resolve.

Designers are not doomed

There's a lot of anxiety in the creative world right now. Will AI steal my job? Will my portfolio matter? Will my clients stop needing me?

Here's the good news: tools don't replace talent. They amplify it.

Designers who use AI like a co-pilot will be the real winners. Who sketch ideas with words, refine with clicks, and bring their own taste, style, and context to the mix. The ones who aren't afraid to say, "Yeah, let's generate 40 concepts and throw away 39."

Because AI might give you options—but only you know what feels right.

This is your unfair advantage. You've got intuition. AI has infinite output. Combine those, and you're not just faster—you're unstoppable.

What's the next era of design going to look like?

Let's zoom out.

ChatGPT-4o is just the tip of a much larger cultural shift. One where anyone with an internet connection and an idea can create at scale. You no longer need expensive software, deep training, or a creative director's blessing to make something beautiful, weird, or wildly original.

This is the democratization of creative power. The erasing of the "I can't draw" excuse. The birth of the "just try it" mindset.

Suddenly, the weird kid with a wild sci-fi novel in their head can concept characters. The indie musician can generate visuals for their next album. The small biz owner can prototype a full ad campaign in an afternoon. It's not about gatekeeping. It's about greenlighting.

Creativity is no longer a skill you earn over decades. It's a thing you do today.

Filtering out quality designs in a flood of visuals

So yeah—this new era is noisy. There's a lot of mediocre AI art out there. There are prompts that go nowhere. There are aesthetic cliches and surreal nightmares and squirrel astronauts that no one asked for (but kind of love anyway).

There's a shift in who gets to make, and how fast they can do it. There's a world where visuals are as disposable and remixable as text. Where imagination scales. Where ideas become images in the time it takes to say, "Make it more orange."

The flood is coming. But if you've got taste, perspective, and a point of view, you’ll be thriving in this new age.