OpenAI’s latest tool, launched as part of GPT-4o on Tuesday, has taken the internet by storm with its ability to generate stunning Studio Ghibli-style artwork. While designed to create highly accurate and stylized visuals, the AI’s unexpected mastery of legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki’s aesthetic has made it an instant viral sensation.

Within hours of the update going live, users began experimenting with the image generator, discovering its remarkable talent for Ghibli-style art. Soon, social media was flooded with AI-generated renditions of selfies, pets, fictional characters, and even everyday objects like coffee cups and bicycles—all reimagined in the dreamy, hand-drawn style of Studio Ghibli.

The trend quickly spread across X, Instagram, and Reddit under hashtags like #GhibliStyle and #AIGhibli. Users also applied the technology to pop culture, turning celebrities, internet memes, and historic figures into Ghibli characters. Bollywood wasn’t far behind—iconic Indian movie moments, including Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s train climax from ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, Prabhas in ‘Baahubali’, and Rajpal Yadav’s ‘Chote Pandit’ from ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’, received the Ghibli treatment.

Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined in on the fun. On Wednesday, he joked on X:

"Be me. Grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever, mostly no one cares for the first 7.5 years, and then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything. Wake up one day to hundreds of messages: ‘look I made you into a twink Ghibli style haha.’”

Altman even changed his profile picture to an AI-generated Ghibli-style version of himself.

OpenAI’s new "Images in ChatGPT" feature allows users to generate images within the chatbot. However, due to high demand, free-tier users face limitations, and the rollout has seen some hiccups, including delays and a bug related to content moderation.