OpenAI released Images 2.6 on Nov. 4, a new version of the AI model that makes and edits pictures inside ChatGPT. The biggest change is motion. ChatGPT is gaining the ability to make GIFs, short looping animations, from a written request or from an uploaded sketch. Someone can draw a character and ask ChatGPT to make it wave. People can change how fast a GIF plays and share it. OpenAI says the feature is rolling out now.
Images 2.6 is available worldwide in ChatGPT and in Codex, OpenAI's coding tool, on every subscription plan, on the web and in its desktop and phone apps. OpenAI says it makes images 50% faster than before. OpenAI also says the model is better at keeping details the same across rounds of edits, such as a character's outfit when the background changes. A second new feature, saved reference images, lets people reuse a photo in later chats. Someone can save a picture of their dog under its name, then ask for a watercolor of it without uploading the photo again.
Developers get two versions through OpenAI's API, a connection that lets developers plug a service into their own apps. GPT-Image-2.6 Flare is the faster one, and OpenAI says it can make a picture in as little as six seconds on its low quality setting. GPT-Image-2.6 Sunburst is meant for more detailed work, and OpenAI says it keeps pictures more consistent across edits at its medium and high quality settings. Both can make animated GIFs. They can also make SVG files, which OpenAI says are ready to use on websites, in apps and in print. A new setting lets developers choose how much the model plans a picture before drawing it. OpenAI's guide warns that more planning can slow a picture down and bring unwanted changes. On OpenAI's standard price list, both cost the same as the two versions that came with Images 2.5.
OpenAI says people now make 4 billion images a week across ChatGPT, Codex and its developer service. In September, when it released Images 2.5, it put the figure at more than 3 billion a week, counting ChatGPT and its developer service. Companies quoted in OpenAI's announcement include Picsart, Figma Weave and OpenArt, which made its cartoon animations of an office worker watching the stock market.
OpenAI has published no test scores comparing Images 2.6 with rival picture makers. It says it describes its safety testing of the new model in a separate report.