OpenAI’s new image model reasons before it draws

The new model reasons about composition, searches the web for context, generates up to eight coherent images from one prompt, and renders text in non-Latin scripts with near-flawless accuracy. It also took the number one spot on the Image Arena leaderboard within 12 hours of launch, by the largest margin ever recorded.

Two years ago, asking ChatGPT to generate a visual was like commissioning a poster from a sleep-deprived intern with a glue stick and a head injury. You’d ask for a clean design and get “leftovers creativity” splashed across the image, plus three new words that looked like they’d been invented during a minor software malfunction.

The images looked AI-generated in the way that has become a cultural shorthand for uncanny: almost right, conspicuously wrong, and instantly recognisable as synthetic.

The leap matters. Text rendering has been the persistent, embarrassing weakness of AI image generators since DALL-E ...