Ad Creatives: Is OpenAI’s New Image Generator About to Disrupt Your Work?

Is OpenAI’s new image generator a game-changer for advertising creatives? It depends who you ask.

On Tuesday, OpenAI released what it called its “most advanced image generator yet,” built into the latest version of ChatGPT. Called “4o Image Generation,” the tool sparked so much buzz and attention, activity on it overloaded the company’s servers, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. 

With 4o Image Generation, a user can enter prompts into ChatGPT and produce images like art, diagrams, infographics, logos, and stock photos. This week, some users experimented with the generator to create images in the animation styles of South Park, The Simpsons, Rick and Morty, and Studio Ghibli—the latter of which became a viral trend on social media. 

OpenAI’s previous text-to-image generation tool, DALL-E, is a separate system from ChatGPT and users have reported pitfalls in the quality of its images. But 4o Image Generation, built into a single system with ChatGPT, has already received praise for being more sophisticated and creating more realistic and accurate imagery. 

With all the hype, what does 4o Image Generator mean for creatives in advertising? ADWEEK asked a few who use AI tools for their views.

‘Gives power to the masses’ 

Wesley ter Haar, co-founder and chief AI officer at Monks, said the new image generator is “amazing” because of its accessibility. 

“It gives a level of creative quality and control to the masses. Previously, this was only available to power users with more convoluted set-ups and workflows,” he said.

While he cautioned advertising creatives about embracing AI tools without considering brand safety concerns for their clients, overall “this development clearly shows where the technology—and because of that our industry—will be headed.” 

While Andrés Ordóñez, global CCO of FCB, agreed that the 4o Image Generator is “a big step forward” in terms of “how seamlessly it integrates into the creative process,” the AI program Midjourney “still leads the way” in terms of visual craft, he said.

“[Midjourney’s] Editor tools let you zoom into a specific part of an image, refine it with precision, and maintain visual consistency. It also handles stylized, expressive imagery with a trained eye,” Ordóñez explained. 

Ordóñez said he’ll likely use OpenAI’s 4o Image Generator to shape an idea and generate better prompts to use on Midjourney, but he’ll use the latter “to refine and elevate the craft, push the aesthetic, get specific.” 

Creatives shouldn’t be relying on just one tool to elevate their craft, he argued. 

“The true game changer isn’t one tool. It’s how we combine them to supercharge the creative process, move faster, think sharper, and visualize ideas with more clarity than ever before,” Ordóñez said. 

‘It’s not a killer of anything’

For Craig Elimeliah, chief creative officer of Code and Theory, OpenAI’s new image generator is more like a subtle “game shifter” rather than a game changer for the creative process—and the most notable shift is not just being able to generate a better quality image.

“The distance between an idea and a fully formed visual is now seconds, not days, and that changes the whole psychology of creativity. You can now think with your eyes,” Elimeliah explained.

He added that as creatives use more AI tools in their work, “we’re moving from creativity as craft to creativity as choreography.”

“You’re not just designing an image, you’re directing a system, shaping outcomes with words, taste, and intent,” he said. “Those people who will win here aren’t necessarily the best technicians; they’re the ones who know how to guide the machine toward something meaningful.”

The 4o Image Generator might make the creative process easier for those “who want to do it all in one place,” said James Dow, gen AI creative director at The Brandtech Group. However, Dow doesn’t envision using the tool to create final image. 

“It will be another fantastic tool in the box, but it’s not a killer of anything,” he said. “It’s impressive in a lot of ways, but it’s not going to reinvent any existing workflows for me yet.” 

Dow and others cautioned creatives against getting caught up in the hype around any new AI tool, especially because the technology is evolving so rapidly. 

Geert Eichhorn, executive innovation director at Monks, advised creatives to “approach your work in a tech agnostic way, so you don’t get locked in a model ecosystem that might be surpassed by next week.”