Ghibli Art Frenzy Meets OpenAI Reality: Sam Altman Urges Users to ‘Chill Out, ChatGPT Team’s Exhausted’

AI-generated art is taking the internet by storm, with social media feeds flooded by aesthetic, surreal visuals that evoke the signature animation style of Studio Ghibli. These artworks, featuring everything from magical landscapes to characters with expressive eyes, capture the enchanting essence of Hayao Miyazaki's creations.

The trend kicked off earlier this week when ChatGPT’s newly launched GPT-4o image generator began converting various image prompts into Studio Ghibli-inspired art. OpenAI's "Images for ChatGPT" impresses users by flawlessly rendering depth, shadows, and even text, which has spurred a wave of creators to emulate Miyazaki’s iconic aesthetic.

However, CEO Sam Altman has urged customers to "chill out" as the overwhelming demand for ChatGPT's new upgrade is straining his team's capacity. “Can y’all please chill on generating images. This is insane, our team needs sleep,” Altman wrote.

In response to a post by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, Altman explained, "We just haven’t been able to catch up since launch so people are still working to keep the service up. Biblical demand—I have never seen anything like it."

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Ghibli Melting GPUs

Shortly after the image generator was released, Altman commented, "It’s awesome to see people enjoying images in ChatGPT, but our GPUs are overheating. We’re rolling out some temporary rate limits while we optimize things—shouldn’t take too long! Soon, the free tier of ChatGPT will get 3 generations daily." While he didn't detail the specific restrictions, Altman expressed hope that this measure is temporary as OpenAI works to better manage the surge in demand.

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Days later, the GPU "meltdown" narrative continued with an update from Rohan Sahai, product lead for Sora, OpenAI’s video generation tool built by the ChatGPT team. In a tweet, Sahai highlighted the unprecedented demand for GPT-4o image generation, noting that the Sora feed is overflowing with amazing creations.

However, he warned that GPUs in Sora territory are "frying," which may lead to longer wait times or capacity hiccups in the coming days as the team works to stabilize the service. Sahai also referenced CEO Sam Altman’s earlier remarks about the strain caused by Ghibli-style AI art on OpenAI's systems. OpenAI is leveraging its GPT-4o model to power this upgraded image generation tool, which produces remarkably lifelike visuals that users can creatively steer in countless directions. The model has also overcome past challenges, such as accurately rendering text.