Technology & Science
OpenAI Launches GPT Image 1.5 and Overhauls ChatGPT Images
On 16-17 Dec 2025, OpenAI swapped in its new GPT Image 1.5 model and a dedicated “Images” tab, cutting generation time by roughly 75 % and allowing pinpoint photo-level edits inside ChatGPT for every user tier and API client.
Focusing Facts
- GPT Image 1.5 renders images up to 4× faster than the previous model, according to OpenAI’s release notes of 17 Dec 2025.
- API access is priced 20 % below the outgoing GPT Image 1.0, lowering per-image costs for developers.
- The revamped Images interface—with presets, filters, and prompt suggestions—was pushed live globally to free, Plus, and Pro ChatGPT accounts on 17 Dec 2025.
Context
Kodak’s 1888 slogan, “You press the button, we do the rest,” shrank photography’s skill barrier; Adobe Photoshop 1.0 in 1990 digitized that shift. GPT Image 1.5 is the next rung: not just capturing or editing pixels but synthesising them, at commodity speed and price. The launch fits a decade-long trend—multimodal AI models iterating every 6–12 months and an OpenAI-Google tit-for-tat reminiscent of the 1980s Microsoft-Apple OS race—each release trying to lock users into its walled garden. Technically, the 4× speed jump hints at more compute-efficient diffusion or cache-based architectures, signalling a march toward real-time, on-device generation. Socially, it accelerates the century-long drift from human-made to machine-made visuals, potentially hollowing mid-skill creative jobs while empowering amateurs. On a 100-year horizon, the question is not faster render times but whether culture accepts synthetic imagery as authentic expression or regulates it like 20th-century broadcast media; this update nudges that pendulum toward ubiquitous, friction-free fabrication.
Perspectives
Industry-friendly tech news outlets
WebProNews, Digit, SiliconANGLE, GSM Arena, FoneArena — They present GPT Image 1.5 as a breakthrough that keeps OpenAI ahead of Google, dramatically speeds up workflows, and “democratizes” professional-grade image creation. Coverage leans on OpenAI’s press material and competitive framing, emphasizing hype and business upside while largely glossing over copyright, labor or safety concerns that could temper investor-friendly narratives.
Skeptical consumer tech press
TechRadar, Mint — While acknowledging the new features, they stress that the model still remixes art scraped without consent and could erode opportunities for human creatives, so users must question what it really means to "make" something. By foregrounding ethical caveats and past shortcomings, the pieces may over-accentuate worst-case harms to draw reader attention, yet provide limited technical detail on safeguards now in place.
Regional/local outlets highlighting accessibility for domestic users
Newsbytes.PH, FoneArena — They frame the rollout as a boon for Filipino and other regional creators—now anyone on the free tier can quickly produce marketing visuals and integrate the API into local startups. The local-angle reporting spotlights national economic benefits, but in doing so it sidesteps global debates over AI’s artistic ethics and the competitive job pressures these same users may soon face.