Open AI GPT-4o's New Image Generator: What It Means for Copyright, Creativity and the Future of Digital Marketing
OpenAI’s new GPT-4o image generator has landed, and it’s nothing short of wild. You can now generate hyper-detailed, fast-loading images simply by typing what you want to see. Need a cartoon explainer, a photorealistic ad image, or a concept sketch for your product idea? You’ve got it in seconds.
But with great power comes great…questions.
What does this mean for copyright and trust?
We're stepping into murky territory. If AI generates an image based on public data, who owns it? And when synthetic visuals flood the web, who do we trust? Over the last week X was flooded with Studio Ghibli (a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo.) style memes as people try out OpenAI's new 4o image generator.
Brands will need to be more transparent about what’s AI and what’s not.
Creators may see their styles copied, without credit.
The smart approach? Startups and scaleups should treat AI as a creative accelerator, not a substitute for human judgment or originality. Add your voice. Use AI for volume and experimentation, but layer on your brand truth.
Fancy giving it a whirl? Here's a link.
What does it mean for creativity?
Creativity just got a superpower upgrade.
We’re now able to go from a napkin sketch idea to a visual storyboard in minutes. This doesn’t kill creativity, it supercharges it. For early-stage brands without big budgets, it can potentially level the playing field.
Want to test five different ad directions for a campaign? Generate them. Want to storyboard a TikTok in a client meeting? Done. Want to visualise your next brand mascot, billboard, or packaging? Done.
What does it mean for digital marketing?
The biggest impact will be in short-form content - ads, posts, email headers, pitch decks, and explainer graphics.
Digital marketing is about to get:
- Faster
- More visual
- More experimental
- More data-optimised
- More of a sea of crap (potentially)
Expect to see a world where every performance ad is AI-generated, A/B tested, and iterated daily. It's no longer about “creating the perfect visual.” It’s about testing 50 and scaling the one that works.
Use Cases for Startups, Scaleups & Growth Businesses
This is where it potentially gets exciting (and useful):
1. Pitch Deck Visuals
Explain your product, market opportunity or growth strategy with bespoke visuals - no stock photos or hours spent designing slides.
Example: A climate tech startup generates illustrated diagrams of carbon capture processes for investor decks.
2. Product Mockups
Visualise products or services not yet built. Perfect for landing pages and MVP validation.
Example: A fintech app startup mocks up futuristic dashboards for a pre-launch waitlist site.
3. Ad Creatives at Scale
Auto-generate dozens of ad variants for testing across platforms like Meta, TikTok or LinkedIn using.
Example: A DTC skincare brand tests 10 AI-generated versions of a product benefits explainer, each tailored to a different demographic.
4. Social Media Explainers
Turn complex blog posts or ideas into scroll-stopping carousels and infographics.
Example: A B2B SaaS scaleup transforms its whitepaper into a week-long series of visual LinkedIn posts, each AI-designed and on-brand.
5. Brand Concepting & Moodboarding
Build brand worlds with AI-generated reference imagery before engaging a designer.
Example: A founder creates an AI-generated lookbook to brief a designer on their sustainable fashion line’s visual direction.
6. Email Campaign Headers
Make your next email pop with thematic visuals that match your campaign, offer, or time of year—without going into Photoshop.
Example: A subscription box company auto-generates monthly email visuals featuring seasonal or trend-based themes.
AI won’t replace creativity. But it will replace time wasted not creating. For startups and growth-stage businesses, tools like GPT-4o's image generation are an unfair advantage if you use them smartly.
Focus on using AI to:
- Explain your ideas faster
- Test more creatively
- Communicate visually with impact
- Save design time for the big creative moves
A final word of caution
The brands that win? They’ll be the ones who blend tech with unique brand strategy and conceptual creative.
As powerful as AI is, it comes with creative and ethical risks. Just look at Studio Ghibli, which has publicly taken a strong anti-AI stance, warning against the soullessness of machine-made art and the exploitation of original work without consent. They're not alone, concerns around copyright infringement and creative dilution are real and growing.
When AI becomes ubiquitous, so does mediocrity. If everyone uses it generically, your audience will stop noticing. That’s why the true power lies in how you use it.
The brands that will stand out are the ones who lead with pure brand strategy: getting clear on who you are, what your positioning is, and why you’re different. Start with conceptual, human-led creativity rooted in truth—then use AI to scale, visualise, and experiment faster than ever before.
That’s how you build a brand—and a business—that is not only future-facing, but emotionally resonant, legally sound, and creatively original.
Let’s chat if you want to get on the front foot of AI, from brand clarity to smart content planning and marketing that blends human creativity with powerful automation. The future isn’t just faster; it’s more strategic.