Turn Your Prompts and Pictures into Animated GIFs with ChatGPT Images 2.6 🎨

Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,

In today’s issue, we take a look at OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Images 2.6, which comes with capabilities such as faster generation and a way to turn text prompts and reference images into animated GIFs.

Let’s jump into it!

Read Time: 4.5 min

Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI

• OpenAI Says ChatGPT Search Volume Has Reached 20% of Google’s

• Apple Cuts Employee AI Budgets as It Moves to Rein in Costs

• AI Tutorial: How to Create Animated GIFs with ChatGPT Images 2.6

• AI Tools to check out

• AI Findings/Resources

• The Latest in AI and Tech 💡

AI News

OPENAI

OpenAI Says ChatGPT Search Volume Has Reached 20% of Google’s

OpenAI says ChatGPT now processes search queries at a volume equal to 20% of Google’s, highlighting how quickly AI-powered search is becoming a major alternative to traditional search engines.

Details:

• Adam Fry, OpenAI’s consumer product lead for ChatGPT, shared the figure at a press event on Monday.

• He said the company defines a search as any time a user inputs a query that results in a web search, as opposed to tasks like defining a term or giving a simple how-to explanation.

• OpenAI did not disclose the source of the Google search volume figure used for the comparison.

• Fry also took the opportunity to defend the company’s decision to introduce ads in ChatGPT, saying they “have not negatively impacted the product or the usage of the product” and have not generated a lasting backlash from users.

Although one-fifth of Google’s search volume is still a considerable gap, it represents significant growth for an alternative search experience. For comparison, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in 2023 that Bing held roughly 3% of the search market. The announcement also comes as OpenAI reportedly approaches a potential IPO early next year.

Source

TOGETHER WITH ROKU

It's time to set up your holiday streaming campaign

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Launch your campaign today.

APPLE

Apple Cuts Employee AI Budgets as It Moves to Rein in Costs

Apple has reduced the amount employees can spend on AI tools as part of a broader cost-control effort, even as the company looks to expand AI adoption across its operations.

Details:

• Apple reportedly cut the daily AI spending allowance for some engineers from $300 to $200 last month, affecting employees who use AI models and coding tools.

• The company is considering further cuts for certain engineering teams, potentially lowering their daily limits to $100.

• Some non-engineering teams already have a $100 daily cap, which could be reduced to as little as $25.

• Employees who need access beyond their assigned budgets would be able to request exceptions from senior executives.

• The budgets cover AI tokens, the units of data processed by models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini.

The move reflects a wider trend among technology companies reassessing AI expenses after initially encouraging employees to adopt these tools. Bloomberg recently reported that Goldman Sachs had also restricted access to some AI coding tools following a review of productivity and risk management.

Source

AI Tutorial

How to Create Animated GIFs with ChatGPT Images 2.6

OpenAI just introduced ChatGPT Images 2.6, a new image model that not only generates images 50% faster than its predecessor but can also turn a prompt or image into an animated GIF.

1. Open ChatGPT and describe the GIF you want to create.

Be as specific as you like about the subject, movement, and style. You can also upload a reference image to guide the creation.

2. Once ChatGPT generates your GIF, you can make further edits using follow-up prompts or by clicking the GIF and selecting “Edit” (playback speed can be adjusted too, with options ranging from 0.5x to 2x).

3. When you're happy with the result, download or share your GIF.

With the new update, you can also keep reference images of yourself, pets, and characters ready to reuse in new creations, so you never have to upload them again.

Notes:

• Images 2.6 is rolling out globally in ChatGPT and Codex across all subscription tiers, on desktop, mobile, and web.

• OpenAI is also releasing the API models GPT-Image-2.6 “Flare” for efficient image generation and “Sunburst” for higher-quality image generation.

AI Tools to check out

💻 Qoder: a next-generation AI programming platform that offers intelligent code completion, AI conversational programming, and automatic code generation.

🎬 Spira AI: a leading social video model, post‑trained on viral short‑form video, that delivers ready‑to‑post videos at scale.

📊 DailyHelm: AI business reviewer. It monitors your analytics, ads, SEO, and store overnight, then tells you what to fix today, ranked by revenue impact.

📄 Reactive Resume: a free, open-source resume builder.

AI Findings/Resources

👉 DataCamp is giving away free access to 700+ AI and data courses from November 2 to 8, no credit card needed

🧊 How to turn a single photo into a 3D scene with Apple’s free AI

🚙 Almost no one uses AI agents to book their Uber, company says

😅 Terminator 2, but Skynet was trained on LinkedIn influencers

🧵 Anthropic shared a thread with all of its Claude Code updates from October

The latest in AI and Tech

Grok Bot can now make phone calls in the US

SpaceXAI has introduced phone calls in Grok Bot, although calling is currently limited to users in the US (except Washington and Illinois), and only to US numbers in those same areas.

Meta acquires AI coding startup Conductor

Conductor uses multiple AI agents working in parallel workspaces to help developers build software projects. The deal adds to Meta’s efforts to expand its AI coding capabilities.

Pangram expands AI detection to images and videos

The company has introduced tools that let subscribers check whether images and videos were generated or edited using AI, including heatmaps that highlight potentially AI generated areas in videos. The company claims its video detector identifies AI content with more than 98% accuracy, while its image model detects over 99% of AI generated images.

Voters rejected datacenters at the ballot box in Tuesday’s midterms

Voters in dozens of municipalities across at least 10 states approved measures to restrict or temporarily halt data center development in the November 4 elections. Ohio alone saw at least 14 municipalities pass restrictions, while eight towns in Maine approved temporary moratoriums.

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Gina 👩🏻‍💻