The new version of ChatGPT Images is designed to make and edit images more precisely, as well as to spit out pictures as much as four times faster than its previous AI image-generation model. — Reuters
OpenAI is rolling out an update to ChatGPT that’s intended to generate images better and faster, the latest move by the artificial intelligence developer to bolster its flagship chatbot amid heated competition from Alphabet Inc’s Google.
The new version of ChatGPT Images, announced on Thursday, is designed to make and edit images more precisely, as well as to spit out pictures as much as four times faster than its previous AI image-generation model. The company is also creating a new section within ChatGPT’s mobile app and website meant for people to make images, rather than just doing so in an interaction with the chatbot.
OpenAI has increasingly tried to position ChatGPT as a kind of everything app that offers a search engine, voice assistant and image and video generator. But the company faces growing pressure from companies like Google, which recently introduced a powerful new AI model called Gemini 3 and also offers a popular image generator called Nano Banana. Grok, a chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI, also offers a similar feature.
Earlier this month, OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman declared a "code red” situation in an internal memo following the launch of Gemini 3 and called for a "surge” to improve ChatGPT, Bloomberg News has reported. Last week, OpenAI unveiled a more advanced AI model designed to make ChatGPT better at coding, science and a wide range of work tasks.
With the latest improvements to its image generator, OpenAI aims to cater to a mix of personal and professional uses.
The updated software aims to let users make a number of edits to uploaded images, such as by changing the style from photorealistic to watercolor, or by giving each person pictured a new hat – all without losing track of details in earlier versions. In particular, OpenAI said the new model can keep the lighting, a person’s appearance and a scene’s composition steady through a variety of edits and changes. The company’s previous image models sometimes tripped up keeping track of such details, particularly across multiple edits.
The new model can also generate more and smaller text, the company said, such as creating a detailed infographic or numerous paragraphs that users feed it in a prompt. It’s also better at generating a number of small faces in a single image. – Bloomberg
