Sam Altman takes another jab at Ghibli: ‘Our team needs sleep’ as Ghibli-style AI art takes over

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman urges users to slow AI-generated Ghibli-style art as viral trend overwhelms system.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has jokingly urged users to slow down on generating AI-powered Studio Ghibli-style images after the viral trend overwhelmed the company’s systems.

The explosion of demand came after OpenAI’s latest image-generation tool in ChatGPT allowed users to effortlessly recreate the signature Ghibli aesthetic—known for its hand-drawn animation, fantasy landscapes, and nostalgic charm. AI-generated Ghibli-style portraits, memes, and movie reimaginings quickly flooded social media, putting immense strain on OpenAI’s infrastructure.

can yall please chill on generating images this is insane our team needs sleep

— Sam Altman (@sama) March 30, 2025

Addressing the chaos, Altman took to X (formerly Twitter) with a mix of sarcasm and frustration, posting, "can yall please chill on generating images this is insane our team needs sleep." His remark, while humorous, hinted at the enormous workload faced by OpenAI’s team as they struggled to keep up with demand. When one user jokingly suggested firing the team behind the feature, Altman dismissed the idea, responding, "no thanks. in addition to building agi this team is on trajectory to build the biggest website in the world from a cold start 2.33 years ago. best team in the world, it's just hard."

To manage the surge, OpenAI introduced temporary restrictions, limiting free-tier users to three image generations per day, while paid subscribers retained more access. As discussions shifted to the company’s long-term goals, one user asked about the timeline for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), to which Altman quipped, "it will come sooner if you stop using our gpus to make images."

Altman later explained that OpenAI’s GPUs were "melting" under the strain but assured users that optimizations were underway. Despite the unexpected workload, he embraced the viral moment, even updating his profile picture to an AI-generated Ghibli-style portrait, joking about the irony of working on AGI while AI-generated fan art dominated the internet.