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The still image is incredibly powerful; photographers know this better than anyone. And even in AI, it is the picture side of the product that is turbo-charging their gigantic businesses, according to a new report. <\/p>\n
Per Android Authority<\/a>, the fastest growth for apps like ChatGPT and Google Gemini comes when there is an AI image trend, like the Studio Ghibli<\/a> one last year.<\/p>\n App intelligence provider Appfigures<\/a> provided the data, essentially finding that image model releases correlate with large increases in downloads far more than upgrades to the chatbots. <\/p>\n Google Gemini has benefited from Nano Banana, which gained the AI app an extra 22 million downloads when the viral AI image generator was released<\/a>. That was four times the usual rate of Gemini downloads. <\/p>\n It was a similar story for when OpenAI announced ChatGPT-4o<\/a>, which was a big step forward in terms of the realism that AI imagery can achieve. The excitement surrounding the image generator resulted in approximately 4.5 times the normal number of downloads, far more than when the text generator was updated. <\/p>\n But there is a major difference between OpenAI and Google\u2019s viral AI image generator movement: one was able to monetize it, and one didn\u2019t as much. TechCrunch notes<\/a> that ChatGPT generated $70 million from customers after it launched ChatGPT-4o\u2019s images. In contrast, Google\u2019s Nano Banana only grossed $181,000 \u2014 despite getting more downloads than ChatGPT. <\/p>\n The outlier is the Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, which blew up at the beginning of 2025<\/a>. The release of DeepSeek R1 and its AI image model, Janus-Pro-7B, drove 28 million downloads. But the difference between DeepSeek and the others is that it was a relatively unknown app and exploded in popularity seemingly overnight. Part of the intrigue was that the app had been created at a fraction of the cost of traditional models. It prompted OpenAI to say that DeepSeek \u201cmay have inappropriately distilled our models.\u201d This was ironic given that OpenAI built its entire company using copyrighted content it never asked permission to use. <\/p>\n Even Meta got a bump after it released its AI video feed Vibes, adding roughly 2.6 million downloads.<\/p>\n \u201cVisual AI looks like the best way to create mobile demand,\u201d writes Appfigures<\/a>. \u201cBut ChatGPT is still the app converting that demand into subscription spending. Gemini can make people curious. Meta can make them browse. DeepSeek can turn global attention into a download rush. But ChatGPT is the one turning a visual feature into money.<\/p>\n![\"Bar](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Appfigures-Data-800x450.jpg\")
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