From AI Barbie to 'Ghiblification' - how ChatGPT's image generator put 'insane' pressure on OpenAI

ChatGPT's new image-generation tool led to a record number of users in April, forcing OpenAI's boss to beg people to "chill out a bit".

With ChatGPT-4o, users can transform photos or memes into distinctive styles - making them look like they came straight out of The Simpsons, Rick And Morty or South Park. The latest update to the AI tool can also generate realistic images, logos and diagrams from simple word prompts, able to handle up to 20 different objects in one image.

The internet has also discovered that the update makes it possible to recreate themselves in Barbie doll form. Between that and the ability to recast images in the hand-drawn style of Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli - it's been a busy time for AI image generation.

In fact, Sam Altman - the tech mogul and boss of OpenAI, the company that brought ChatGPT into the world - even had to plead with people to "please chill". Record surge in chatbot users Users of ChatGPT breached 150 million for the first time this year after the rollout of the tech's latest image generator, according to data from market research firm Similarweb.

The number of active users, in-app subscription revenue and app downloads also reached an all-time high after the launch of GPT-4o. Mr Altman talked up the success of his technology - but also warned the increased demand for picture generation was putting unprecedented pressure on OpenAI's GPUs (graphics processing units), the part of a computer designed to accelerate graphics and image processing, and it was struggling to cope.

"It's super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT. But our GPUs are melting," Mr Altman said on 27 March.

Three days later, he issued the plea: "Can y'all please chill on generating images, this is insane our team needs sleep." The company was still facing issues by 1 April, with users being warned to expect service to be slow, new OpenAI releases to be delayed and for "stuff to break". On 10 April, Mr Altman said: "OpenAI usage has gone nuts over the past month," adding that service speed and rate limits should improve.

Powerful AI models need increasing amounts of electricity to work. A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that training GPT-4 took 14 weeks and used about 42GWh (gigawatt hours) of electrical power.

That's the equivalent to the daily electricity consumption of about 28,500 households in the developed world or 70,500 households in poorer countries. AI Barbie dolls One of the viral AI-image trends that has recently flooded the internet is the AI Barbie doll.

Using ChatGPT's image generator, people transform themselves into action figures - complete with personalised accessories and a box. One of those to jump on the trend was Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who shared a video of her Barbie doll walking out of its box.

"The Congresswoman MTG Starter Kit If I was a doll," she wrote on social media, adding: "I love all my accessories, including my Bible and gavel for DOGE Committee chair!" To create the figurines, users have to ask the chatbot to "create an action figure style image.