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ChatGPT's image tool update boosts website visits, app

downloads

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Added 1 million users in the last hour, Altman said on

Monday

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Average weekly active users breached 150-million mark

By Akash Sriram

April 1 (Reuters) - The frenzy to create Ghibli-style AI

art using ChatGPT's image-generation tool led to a record surge

in users for OpenAI's chatbot last week, straining its servers

and temporarily limiting the feature's usage.

The viral trend saw users from across the globe flood social

media with images based on the hand-drawn style of the famed

Japanese animation outfit, Studio Ghibli, founded by renowned

director Hayao Miyazaki and known for movies such as "Spirited

Away" and "My Neighbor Totoro".

Average weekly active users breached the 150 million mark

for the first time this year, according to data from market

research firm Similarweb.

"We added one million users in the last hour," OpenAI CEO

Sam Altman said in an X post on Monday, comparing it with the

addition of one million users in five days following ChatGPT's

red-hot launch more than two years ago.

Active users, in-app subscription revenue and app downloads

reached an all-time high last week, according to SensorTower

data, after the AI company launched updates to its GPT-4o model,

enabling advanced image generation capabilities.

Global app downloads and weekly active users on the ChatGPT

app grew 11% and 5%, respectively, from the prior week, while

in-app purchase revenue increased 6%, the market intelligence

firm said.

"It's super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT. But

our GPUs are melting," Altman said last week in response to the

viral trend.

LEGAL UNCERTAINTY

The extensive usage of the AI tool for the Ghibli effect has

also led to questions about potential copyright violations.

"The legal landscape of AI-generated images mimicking Studio

Ghibli's distinctive style is an uncertain terrain. Copyright

law has generally protected only specific expressions rather

than artistic styles themselves," said Evan Brown, partner at

law firm Neal & McDevitt.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment

on the data used to train its AI models and the legality

surrounding its latest feature.

Studio Ghibli co-founder Miyazaki's comments from 2016 on

AI-generated images resurfaced after the trend blew up last

week.

"I am utterly disgusted," Miyazaki had said after being

shown an early render of an AI-generated.

"I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my

work at all."