In today’s Finshots, we tell you if and how GPT-4o, OpenAI’s latest image generation model can change the world of design.

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The Story

Imagine creating beautiful visuals simply by describing them in plain language — no more complicated tools, no more waiting for graphic designers to send drafts back and forth, and no more complaining. It’s kind of the ultimate dream, and despite massive advancements in AI, we've always seemed to be just out of reach. 

However, OpenAI’s latest image generation model (4o) changes this. It has probably brought us within touching distance of the promised land, if not directly into it. This new model is breathtaking. It seems to get everything right. It can create photorealistic images, it doesn’t mess up the figures, it understands context, and it’s turned everyone into an overnight designer.

How do you even make sense of something like this? 

Well, let’s start from the top and ask the most obvious question. 

Why does it work so well and why can’t other models replicate this?

Well, there’s an excellent article on “The Verge” explaining this. But if you want a simple explainer, here’s one–

GPT-4o is an “omnimodal” model, meaning it understands and connects different types of data — like text, images, even audio and video. It also understands prompts better because it was trained to grasp the meaning behind words and images together, rather than strictly following the exact words given. Other models often just follow prompts literally, so you have to provide more details to get the right result. But GPT-4o can guess what you meant even if you don't say everything clearly, making its images match your intention more naturally.

It’s also different from diffusion models.

These models work by starting with random noise and slowly shaping it into an image, based on the prompt. Every time you want to change something — even a small part — you usually have to regenerate the whole image or use special techniques to edit it. They’re great at making high-quality pictures, but they’re not very interactive or smart about making step-by-step changes.

The new 4o image generator is a token-based model that treats images more like language. They “see” the image as a sequence of tokens (like words) and can understand and update specific parts, just like editing a sentence. So if you say “add a tree” or “move the chess piece”, the model can just change that part of the image without touching everything else.

Also, since it knows a lot about the world already, it’s really really good at what it does. 

This will, no doubt, change a few things. 

Marketers and businesses will now have a powerful tool to create and iterate on visuals in real time, without needing advanced design skills. For instance, they can dynamically generate product images with different colours and styles tailored to individual users. They can run extensive A/B tests or adapt entire ad campaigns by describing any updates in plain language. E-commerce platforms can personalise product visuals per customer, while product teams can rapidly prototype UI and UX designs by turning rough ideas into instant visual mockups. Content creators meanwhile will benefit from the ability to adapt or refine their thumbnails on the fly.

There’s something in it for everyone. Including OpenAI. This will definitely help them attract a whole bunch of new users. And as more users interact with the platform, OpenAI will gather more data to continuously improve its models. It could be a virtuous cycle and offer the company a massive edge as the AI race gathers momentum. 

However, there is one problem that we haven’t discussed yet. What does this mean for designers and graphic artists? If anybody can create compelling visuals with a simple prompt, will their jobs cease to exist? 

Well, people often exaggerate doom when it comes to these things. 

Folks in the 19th century believed mechanised looms would eliminate textile jobs, but the industry expanded, creating new factory-based roles instead. The introduction of ATMs was supposed to make bank tellers redundant, yet their numbers only increased as banks redirected employees toward customer service and sales roles. Personal computers, initially seen as potential job killers, birthed entirely new industries in IT and software development. Even e-commerce, once feared as the end of traditional retail, evolved into an integrated model where traditional brick-and-mortar stores and online platforms work together. 

Humans adapt. That’s what they do. And guess what? Designers will adopt these new advancements and co-opt them into their workflows. The only question is – Who’s smart enough to do it quickly? 

That we will have to wait and see. 

Until then…

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