OpenAI launches ChatGPT Images, its answer to Google’s viral Nano Banana
New Delhi: OpenAI on Tuesday announced the launch of ChatGPT Images, a dedicated image editing and creation tool on the ChatGPT mobile app. In the process, it took a leaf from the viral Nano Banana that catapulted Google’s Gemini to widespread mainstream popularity earlier this year.
ChatGPT Images will run on OpenAI’s latest core models through a dedicated ‘images’ mode, the company said in a statement. Can edit images and create images and illustrations.
The platform arrives just three months after Google launched Nano Banana. Google said Nano Banana on X (formerly Twitter) was adopted by 1.3 crore users within four days of its launch.
Market forecasts are showing a strong uptick as stakeholders say around 80% of jobs in creative design will be disrupted by tools like Nano Banana. A report by Grand View Research in August predicted that AI image creators will generate $61 billion in revenue by 2030, a 35% annual increase.
In this note, OpenAI said rendering is “one of the top 10 ways people in India are using ChatGPT today.” A press release stated that the ‘displays’ mode will offer higher prompt sensitivity and usage efficiency. “Users can create new images while others are still rendering, making repetitive tasks like updating images, improving layouts, or removing elements significantly more efficient,” the statement said.
Key rivals
Major competitors to Google’s Nano Banana and OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Images mode include Adobe’s Firefly AI platform, which is integrated into the company’s creative design platform. Second, it uses only copyrighted content owned by Adobe to avoid copyright claim issues. In March this year, Mint Long before Google’s Nano Banana made headlines, it reported on Adobe’s corporate move to become an AI services company.
Nano Banana has faced criticism over user privacy and raised concerns about the use of AI image generators in commercial applications. It remains unclear at this time whether OpenAI’s ChatGPT Images will include protection against copyright claims. OpenAI also did not specify whether ChatGPT Images could be implemented natively by businesses on private datasets.
Mint also reported a growing scramble among Big Tech companies to natively handle Indian languages in AI applications and services. Manish Gupta, senior director of Google DeepMind, said the company has added native support for 29 Indian languages, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT currently supports 12 Indian languages.
OpenAI also hasn’t announced whether ChatGPT Images will currently only work in English or whether it will support other languages as well.
