New Delhi: OpenAI on Tuesday announced the launch of ChatGPT Images, a dedicated image editing and generator tool within the ChatGPT mobile app. In the process, it took a leaf out of the viral Nano Banana, which catapulted Google's Gemini to widespread mainstream popularity earlier this year.
ChatGPT Images will work on OpenAI’s latest foundational models through a dedicated ‘images’ mode, the company said in a statement. It can edit images and generate visuals and illustrations.
The platform comes just over three months after Google released Nano Banana. Within four days of launch, Nano Banana was adopted by 1.3 crore users, Google said on X (formerly Twitter).
Market projections show a strong surge as stakeholders said nearly 80% jobs in creative design will be disrupted by tools such as Nano Banana. A report by Grand View Research in August said AI image generators are projected to generate $61 billion in revenue by 2030, growing at 35% annually.
OpenAI, on this note, said image generation is “one of the top 10 ways people in India are already using ChatGPT today”. In a press statement, it said the ‘images’ mode will offer higher precision of prompts, as well as efficiency of usage. “Users can create new images while others are still rendering, making iterative tasks like updating visuals, refining layouts, or removing elements significantly more efficient,” the statement said.
Key competitors
Key competitors to Google’s Nano Banana and OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Images mode includes Adobe’s Firefly AI platform, which was integrated in the company’s creative design platform. The latter uses only copyrighted content owned by Adobe to avoid copyright claim issues. In March this year, Mint had reported about Adobe’s corporate pivot to become an AI services company, well before Google’s Nano Banana made headlines.
Nano Banana faced criticism on user privacy, raising concerns around the use of AI image generators in commercial applications. At the moment, it remains unclear if OpenAI’s ChatGPT Images will include safeguards against copyright claims. OpenAI also did not state if ChatGPT Images can be implemented locally by businesses on proprietary datasets, locally.
Mint also reported a rising tussle to locally process Indic languages in AI applications and services among Big Tech companies. Manish Gupta, senior director of Google DeepMind, said the company is adding native support for 29 Indic languages, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT currently supports 12 Indic languages.
OpenAI also didn’t clarify if ChatGPT Images will currently work only in English, or support other languages as well.