Last week, OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT-4o, an upgraded image generator that users piled into to create images in the Japanese animation firm Studio Ghibli style. The trend is helping fuel a record spike in users,

The frenzy to create Ghibli-style AI art using ChatGPT's image-generation tool led to a record surge in users for OpenAI's chatbot last week, straining its servers and temporarily limiting the feature's usage.

Social media has recently been flooded with images that looked like they belonged in a Studio Ghibli film. Selfies, family photos and even memes have been re-imagined with the soft pastel palette characteristic of the Japanese animation company founded by Hayao Miyazaki.