"Generating art with AI" - AI’s creativity shocks the internet as ChatGPT 4o turns Severance into a stop-motion classic
Fans of Severance, the hit Apple TV+ series that recently wrapped up its second season, are having fun creating AI-generated images of the show using ChatGPT 4o. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, launched a new upgrade to ChatGPT's image-generating feature on March 25, 2025, that allows users to create instant AI images with a simple prompt.
With ChatGPT 4o, users can upload their personal photos into the chatbox and use different animations as well as anime styles to turn them into artistic images. This feature can also be used to create hyper-realistic images that rival paintings and popular artworks.
Chat GPT 4o has become an instant hit due to its simplicity and the high quality of images.
But it has divided people on its ethical implications and also raised concerns about the future of human creativity. One X user summed up their feelings by posting:
"I can understand ppl doing this out of curiosity, i cant however understand being excited about it. Generating art with AI is like having AI eat your food. Sure its cool to watch the first few times but after a while you're just left with no food."
People shared their excitement on social media platforms and praised ChatGPT 4o for generating instant images in a variety of styles.
"ChatGPT’s new 4o image generation is freakin INSANE The first image is what I started with, each image after was created with one command," one user said.
"The new ChatGPT 4o image generation is transformative for multimodal conversation analysis. It creates anonymized illustrations in any style while preserving relevant details of embodied conduct—useful when you lack ethical approval to include frame grabs in publications," commented one user.
"ChatGPT -4o Image Generation is currently breaking the internet. 🤯It's Actively Insane and good, People can't believe it's 100% AI generated," wrote one user.
However, many opposed the technology and refused to consider AI-generated images as real art.
"Artists are going to be absolutely useless in like... Right now..." remarked one user.
"All very whatever but have you ever considered actually creating something? Not simply typing words into chat gpt but the actual act of creation? You should try it, it's far more satisfying," one user commented.
"Just because it’s legally fair use doesn’t make it morally correct. You’re stealing art that other people put a bunch of time and effort into so you can hack together your own ba**ardized version. AI art is immoral and always will be," countered another X user.
A look into the AI-generated images of Severance created with ChatGPT 4o
On March 27, 2025, the LA-based abstract artist Bennett Waisbren used ChatGPT 4o to create a series of images for the award-winning series, Severance.
He depicted the main characters of Severance - Mark S., Helly R., Irving B., and Dylan G.- using eight different animation styles. These styles include Rankin/Bass, Don Bluth, Fleischer Studios, Pixar, Toei Animation (Classic Era), Cow and Chicken, Max Fleischer’s Superman, and Sylvain Chomet.
Moreover, Bennett used Kling AI to animate these Severance characters into stop-motion. His post has garnered nearly 24 million views in less than 48 hours.
Like the images of Severance, ChatGPT 4o has given way to a new viral trend that involves creating Ghibli-style images, inspired by the famed Japanese animation studio. Social media platforms are flooded with these images of users' family, friends, classic movies, political figures, pop culture moments, and a lot more.
Furthermore, Studio Ghibli-inspired images have also cropped up for the Tesla founder Elon Musk, President Donald Trump, among many others. Evan Sam Altman joined the trend and changed his profile picture on X to a Ghibli-style version of himself.
Also read: "This sh*t is gonna Haunt Me": Severance fans are raving about the season 2 finale, calling it one of the best and most intense episodes so far
Everything to know about ChatGPT 4o
On March 25, 2025, Altman took to his X account to announce the launch of the enhanced text-to-image feature that "represents a new high-water mark in allowing creative freedom." He added that his team aims to put "intellectual freedom and control in the hands of users."
Furthermore, Altman addressed concerns regarding its misuse to create offensive content by assuring users that the tool can only create offensive content within reason, when prompted.
ChatGPT's latest features are an improvement over earlier versions that used separate models to generate images and texts. The GPT 4o combines the two functionalities to produce instant, high-quality images that are "not only beautiful but useful."
Just days after its launch, Altman announced on Thursday, March 27, 2025, on X that the high demand for ChatGPT’s AI image-generation feature has overloaded their servers. In the same post, he mentioned that the company will be limiting the feature's use for the time being to make it more efficient.
He also shared plans to allow users three free images per day moving forward.
Also read: Severance season 2: 10 burning questions that need to be answered in season 3
Viewers can watch all episodes of Severance on Apple TV+.
