OpenAI on Alex Jacobs https://alex-jacobs.com/tags/openai/ Recent content in OpenAI on Alex Jacobs Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 A Computer Made This https://alex-jacobs.com/posts/notacomputer/ Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://alex-jacobs.com/posts/notacomputer/ OpenAI's 4o image generation is a step change in AI capabilities. A look at what reasoning in pixel space means for creative work. The past 24 hours have had me navigating an existential crisis while simultaneously being gaslit by friends, family, and colleagues about what’s going on. And that’s probably fair of them—I have a tendency to overreact to things, to be a bit dramatic.

I am 100% the guy in this panel right now.

img1.jpeg

But 4o image generation is insane.

I’ve been working in the LLM space since before ChatGPT shifted everything. I’ve closely followed the progress. I test every new release. I tell my friends that every AI app they send me is slop. I am not easily impressed.

But this feels like another ChatGPT moment. This isn’t just better distribution (is hiding your state-of-the-art model in a Discord chat behind /commands really the best way to get people to use it?).

This feels foundational. It’s not just a better diffusion model—it’s actual reasoning in pixel space.

I’ve been on the fence about whether AGI (whatever that even means) is possible. Can we actually bottle intelligence into an electric rock? But it doesn’t take much napkin math to pencil this out a few years. (True believers might ask where I’ve been, but rest easy brethren—I am yours now.)

It brings to mind this 100% real needlepoint of an Ilya Sutskever quote. img_2.png

Trying to game out the second- and third-order effects of an image generation model feels strange, even dumb. Infinite Ghibli? What are you worried about? Ghibli gonna take all the jobs?

If I’m a graphic designer, it is over for me today. But I’m not, I’m a software engineer my job is safe! I have felt like chicken little screaming into the void about the computers coming for a few years now. Today I feel some combination of awe and dread. (This probably ends with most of us becoming electricians so we can wire up the data centers)
I won’t even try to get into what the post-reality-filter stage of society we’re about to enter looks like, or what this will do to the meme economy. (My parents already can’t tell the difference between AI-generated and real images. Maybe I can’t either.)

I think this tweet (shared with me by a friend this morning) just about sums it up. img.png

But to that, I say: img_1.png

Below is a series I’ve been working on to try and demonstrate this phenomenon I’m experiencing. My fiancée and I got engaged last October, and we captured an amazing photo (maybe my favorite picture ever). So I’ve been trying to recreate it in every style possible.

The consistency of this model is incredible–and the content filters are tuned to low right now. I won’t be surprised if by the time you’re reading this, most of these styles will be blocked (already seems to be happening :/ )

Our original photo: IMG_1156.jpg

Lego: img_3.png Claymation: img_4.png Sesame Street: img_5.png Scooby-Doo: img_10.png Neon Sign: img_11.png Tim Burton: img_12.png Hey Arnold: img_13.png Victorian Botanical Print: img_14.png Wes Anderson: img_7.png Pixar: img_8.png Vintage Comic: img_9.png Peanuts: img_6.png “Yellow Submarine Family”: img_16.png Construction Paper: img_17.png Architectural Blueprint: img_18.png Medieval Manuscript: medival_manuscript.png Street Art Stencil: street-art-stencil.png Pixelated Video Game: pixelated-video-game.png 1960s Style Cartoon: 1960s-style-cartoon.png Stop Motion: stop-motion.png

And finally, Ghibli: img_19.png

Other models could already do this!

No, they couldn’t.

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