People now make 4 billion images a week with OpenAI’s tools, up from 3 billion in September. From this week, some of those images can move: ChatGPT will turn a typed idea or an uploaded photo into a looping animated GIF, on every ChatGPT plan.
The feature arrived on Wednesday with Images 2.6, OpenAI‘s new image model. OpenAI says it makes pictures 50% faster than the version before and keeps characters, products and brand details more consistent when you ask for changes. It is rolling out in ChatGPT on the web, desktop and phone apps, and in Codex, OpenAI’s coding tool, across all subscription tiers.
How the GIFs work
You ask for a looping GIF and describe what should move. OpenAI’s help page gives the example “Make a looping GIF of a paper boat bobbing on the water.” You can also upload a still photo and ask ChatGPT to animate it.
Once the GIF is made, you can change its speed, step through it frame by frame, save it or share it. Android Authority reports the speed control runs from half speed to double speed. To change the animation itself, you describe the edit in the chat. One limit: ChatGPT can’t edit an animated GIF you upload from elsewhere.
Before this, ChatGPT could not make a real animated GIF in one step, The Verge notes. OpenAI pitches it at marketers animating a mascot and people making reaction memes.
The number behind it
OpenAI says the 4 billion weekly images work out at more than half a billion a day across ChatGPT, Codex and the paid developer service. That is a rise of about a third since September. GIFs give people a new reason to keep generating.
For developers, OpenAI split the model in two. GPT-Image-2.6 Flare is the fast option and can produce a low-quality image in as little as six seconds. GPT-Image-2.6 Sunburst is the slower, higher-quality option. Both are paid by use.
What to watch
Turning a still photo into a moving one is fun with a pet or a doodle. It is less fun if someone does it to your photo without asking. A moving photo of a real person can be passed around as if it were genuine, and ChatGPT’s picture tools have already drawn scrutiny, from the “replica” image trend to fake election photos in the US midterms. OpenAI points to a system card, a document describing its safety tests, for the safeguards on Images 2.6.
Why it matters
A feature that once needed separate apps now sits inside a chatbot many people already use, on every plan. That will make animated AI images far more common in group chats and feeds, and makes it worth checking where a moving image came from before you trust it.
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