Altman’s AI Folly: Ghibli Trend Breaks the Internet! 😱

by

Right then, the chaps at OpenAI have found themselves in a bit of a pickle 🥒. Seems this newfangled AI image doohickey has become all the rage, and their servers are feeling rather like a poached egg left out in the sun. Mr. Sam Altman, the big cheese over there, has announced some temporary restrictions on ChatGPT’s image generation, blaming it all on a viral trend that involves turning absolutely everything into something out of a Studio Ghibli film. Honestly, dash it all! 🤪

Altman himself, not one to miss out on a bit of jolly japes, even popped up with a Ghibli-esque portrait of himself on March 25th. But wouldn’t you know it, two days later, he was singing a different tune, confessing that OpenAI’s contraption was starting to wobble a bit. 🥴

“It’s spiffing to see everyone enjoying images in ChatGPT, but our GPUs are melting faster than ice cream on a summer’s day,” he chirped on Twitter. “We’re slapping on some temporary rate limits while we try to stop the blinking thing from exploding. Shouldn’t be long, what!” 🙄

It’s super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt.

but our GPUs are melting.

we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won’t be long!

chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon.

— Sam Altman (@sama) March 27, 2025

He also mumbled something about image requests being wrongly rejected, adding, “We’re fixing these as fast as we can.” Bless his cotton socks. 🤭

Apparently, OpenAI unleashed its upgraded image generator in ChatGPT-4o on March 25th, which caused a perfect storm of AI-generated images in the distinct hand-drawn style of Studio Ghibli, the blighters behind films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. 🧐

The trend galloped across social media faster than you can say “Bob’s your uncle,” with everyone and their aunt turning profile pictures, famous characters, and goodness knows what else into Ghibli-style masterpieces. Even Elon Musk, the chap in charge of Tesla and X, got in on the act, posting an AI-generated image of King Mufasa from The Lion King lifting a Shiba Inu. I mean, really! 🤣

Theme of the day

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2025

Meanwhile, David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto guru, posted a Ghibli-style image of himself at some event. One can only imagine the pose. 🤔

Guess who?

— David Sacks (@davidsacks) March 27, 2025

With demand booming like a particularly loud foghorn, OpenAI is now limiting free-tier users to a measly three image generations per day. Altman didn’t say how long these draconian measures would last, but he assured everyone it wouldn’t be for too long. One hopes he’s not fibbing! 🤥

According to OpenAI, these rate limits are there to help manage server load and prevent performance issues. “If requests to the API increase dramatically, it could tax the servers and cause performance issues. By setting rate limits, OpenAI can help maintain a smooth and consistent experience for all users,” the company explains. Well, that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it. 😏

So, while the AI-generated Ghibli tidal wave might be slowing down (at least for a bit), the hype around AI art isn’t going anywhere. One can only imagine what the blighters will come up with next! 🤪

Read More

2025-03-28 09:25