OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a significant upgrade to ChatGPT's image generation capabilities during a livestream on Tuesday, marking the first major update in over a year. The AI-powered chatbot platform can now leverage the company's GPT-4o model to natively create and modify images and photos, a feature previously unavailable.

Until now, the GPT-4o model had only been able to generate and edit text, but with this upgrade, it can now produce and modify images, including those with people in them. This capability is currently available to subscribers of OpenAI's $200-a-month Pro plan, with a rollout planned for Plus and free users of ChatGPT, as well as developers using the company's API service.

According to OpenAI, the GPT-4o model with image output "thinks" a bit longer than the image generation model it effectively replaces, DALL-E 3, to produce more accurate and detailed images. The model can also edit existing images, allowing for transformations and "inpainting" of details like foreground and background objects.

Notably, OpenAI did not reveal which image data it used to enable the new image generation capabilities. This lack of transparency is not uncommon in the generative AI industry, where training data is often seen as a competitive advantage and kept confidential. However, this secrecy can also lead to potential intellectual property-related lawsuits.

OpenAI has taken steps to address concerns around data usage, offering an opt-out form that allows creators to request that their works be removed from its training datasets. The company also respects requests to disallow its web-scraping bots from collecting training data, including images, from websites.

The upgrade to ChatGPT's image generation capabilities comes on the heels of Google's experimental native image output for Gemini 2.0 Flash, one of the company's flagship models. While the feature went viral on social media, it also raised concerns about the lack of guardrails, allowing users to remove watermarks and create images depicting copyrighted characters.

The implications of this upgrade are significant, with potential applications in various industries such as graphic design, advertising, and entertainment. As the technology continues to evolve, it will be important to monitor its development and ensure that it is used responsibly and with respect for intellectual property rights.

Looking ahead, the integration of image generation capabilities into ChatGPT and other AI platforms is likely to have a profound impact on the way we interact with and create visual content. As the technology becomes more sophisticated, it will be important to consider the ethical and societal implications of its use and to establish clear guidelines and regulations around its application.