According to The Verge, OpenAI announced its new flagship image generation model, GPT Image 1.5, on Tuesday. The company says it’s better at following instructions, can edit photos in specific ways, and generates results up to four times faster than before. It’s available today to all ChatGPT users. The update includes a redesigned interface with a dedicated Images tab featuring preset filters and trending prompts. OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, framed the tool as working “more like a creative studio.” The company is explicitly positioning this as a shift towards practical, high-fidelity creation for enterprise and work purposes.
OpenAI Goes to Work
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just another fun toy for making weird AI art. The language in OpenAI’s announcement and Fidji Simo’s Substack post is laser-focused on business utility. We’re talking about “photo edits,” “clothing try-ons,” and “product images.” That’s a deliberate pivot. After the initial novelty of AI image generation wears off, the real money is in tools that save time and money for companies. Need to mock up a new product shot or visualize a marketing concept quickly? That’s the market OpenAI is now chasing with both hands.
The Competitive Heat Is On
And they have to chase it, because the competition is getting fierce. The article mentions the “viral success of Google’s Nano Banana,” which is a perfect example of how a competitor can capture the cultural zeitgeist and attention. But beyond virality, the battleground is now about speed, fidelity, and control. Being four times faster is a huge practical advantage. Better instruction-following means less time spent on prompt engineering. This is an arms race for the most reliable, industrial-grade creative assistant. For businesses evaluating these tools, especially those in design, marketing, and e-commerce, these practical improvements matter way more than whether the AI can draw a photorealistic banana.
So who wins and loses? Winners are any businesses that rely on visual content creation—they’re getting more powerful, cheaper tools. The losers? Well, it puts more pressure on stock photo services and low-level graphic design work. It also squeezes other AI labs that aren’t moving as quickly towards this practical, enterprise-focused model. OpenAI is basically saying their tool is graduating from a cool demo to a workhorse. Now we’ll see if the output quality truly matches the business hype.
