As debates around AI-generated art continue to intensify — recently reignited by the viral “Ghibli AI” trend — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has floated the idea of a revenue-sharing model that could give artists a cut when their styles are used by AI.
Speaking at TED 2025 on April 11 in a conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson, Altman said, “I think it would be cool to figure out a new model where if you say ‘I want to do it in the name of this artist’ and they [the artist] opt in, there’s a revenue model there.”
His comments come in the midst of a larger conversation about ethics, consent, and ownership in the era of generative AI. The current uproar centers around AI-generated images mimicking the iconic style of Studio Ghibli, which has prompted widespread criticism from fans and creators alike over potential IP violations and copyright concerns.
Altman noted that OpenAI already has guardrails in place to stop its image generator from producing content that directly copies the style of named artists without their consent. But he acknowledged the complexity of inspiration and attribution in generative art, posing the question: “How much inspiration can you take if you say I want to generate art in the style of these seven people, all of whom have consented to that. How do you divvy up how much money goes to each one? These are like big questions.”
During the talk, Altman also showcased a new memory feature being rolled out in ChatGPT, powered by GPT-4o. The feature allows the AI to remember users’ past queries and preferences over time. “Maybe if you want it’ll be listening to you throughout the day and sort of observing what you’re doing and it’ll get to know you and it’ll become this extension of yourself,” he added.
On the topic of AI replacing human jobs, Altman took a more optimistic stance. He reflected, “There’s sort of two views you can take. You can say, oh, man, it’s doing everything I do, what’s going to happen to me? Or you can say, like, through every other technological revolution in history, okay, now there’s this new tool. I can do a lot more. What am I going to be able to do?” He emphasized that while expectations will rise, the capabilities AI enables will empower people to meet them.
Altman also hinted at OpenAI’s plans to relax content restrictions on its image generator, particularly around speech-related content, making the tool less restrictive moving forward.
This all comes as OpenAI continues to scale at breakneck speed, recently raising funds at a jaw-dropping $300 billion valuation. The company is also working on its next leap forward — AI agents that can perform tasks and transact autonomously on behalf of users.
