Adapted by:
Javier Márquez
WriterI've been in media for over a decade, but I've been marveling at the possibilities that technology brings us much longer. I believe we live in a world where the digital revolution is changing everything and that Xataka is the best place to write about it.
Alba Mora
WriterAn established tech journalist, I entered the world of consumer tech by chance in 2018. In my writing and translating career, I've also covered a diverse range of topics, including entertainment, travel, science, and the economy.
You likely remember the moment in late 2022 when ChatGPT emerged as a groundbreaking tool. Developed by a relatively unknown startup, the app allowed users to have fluid conversations with an AI chatbot for the first time. With ChatGPT, users could request a story, ask for text reviews, and even seek explanations of complex topics like string theory.
At the time, the tech industry was advancing through incremental improvements without any major breakthroughs. ChatGPT’s arrival was an unexpected twist that caught everyone off guard. With new technology, excitement often leads to a rush of users eager to try it out. The phenomenon of ChatGPT was no exception.
OpenAI’s tool amassed one million users in just five days–a staggering feat compared to other tech giants. For instance, Netflix took three and a half years to reach that milestone, while Twitter took two years. Facebook achieved that figure in 10 months, and it took Instagram two and a half months.
The AI startup is making headlines again after breaking its own popularity record.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the new milestone in an X post. “The ChatGPT launch 26 months ago was one of the craziest viral moments I’d ever seen, and we added one million users in five days. [Now,] we added one million users in the last hour,” he said on Monday.
Very few services can handle this influx of users in such a short time. One of the closest comparisons is Meta’s Threads, which gained two million users in just two hours. However, the context was different. The direct integration with Instagram significantly facilitated that growth.
Beyond the official statistics, analysis firms have also noted ChatGPT’s tremendous growth. Sensor Tower estimates that the app’s downloads increased by 11% from the prior week. Meanwhile, the number of active users grew by 5%, and subscriptions rose by 6% during the same period.
When Technology Connects with the People
It’s no secret that AI has evolved rapidly over the past two years. The most sophisticated technical advancements aim to achieve higher performance, solve complex problems, and democratize access to reasoning models. However, these innovations don’t always resonate with the general public.
What truly engages users often operates on a different level: nostalgia, art, and humor. In other words, memes. This is precisely where OpenAI’s latest feature has found its niche. On March 25, ChatGPT received an update and introduced an integrated image generator powered by the GPT-4o multimodal model.
One of the many scenes recreated using ChatGPT.
The GPT-4o model has been a part of ChatGPT since last year. It initially stood out for its text generation and computer vision capabilities, but didn’t produce images. That changed with this latest update, which is particularly good at recreating images in recognizable artistic styles.
Around the world, users quickly embraced the latest ChatGPT feature to unleash their creativity. They began to recreate iconic images in the distinctive Studio Ghibli style. Some transformed their vacation photos into LEGO scenes. Others turned real portraits into The Muppets versions and detailed pixel art illustrations.
However, not everything is perfect. The excitement surrounding the new image generation capability came with two significant issues. First, the high demand led OpenAI to delay deployment for free users and impose use limits.
Second, the issue of recognizable styles is fraught with controversy. As users experiment with recreations inspired by well-known creative universes, a long-standing debate surrounding AI resurfaces. How did these models learn to create Ghibli-style images?
While often opaque, the answer tends to point in a troubling direction. Many models, including the one powering this feature in ChatGPT, have been trained on vast amounts of images available on the web. The problem is that many are copyrighted, raising ongoing tensions between technologists and content creators.
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