Thoughts Behind GPT-4o Image Generation: When NFTs Become a Style of Painting
Will the era of style as ownership and ownership as value arrive?After the launch of the image generation feature in GPT-4o, you only need to upload an NFT image and input commands like "Ghibli style" or "cyberpunk" for the AI to instantly transform it into a brand new visual form. Of course, you can turn a Curry avatar into an Azuki style. So, what impact and influence will the current development of AI have on NFTs?
Style Equals Ownership
In the past few years, the core value of NFTs has been built on "verifiable scarcity" and the unique community of holders. Whether it's CryptoPunks or BAYC, they were essentially created by designing a set of traits, using algorithms to generate a limited number of "unique combinations," and endowing them with social identity attributes. However, the image generation capabilities of GPT-4o may be the driving force behind the expansion of NFT styles—are we about to enter an era where style equals on-chain ownership?
Taking Azuki as an example, its iconic anime-style profile is seen as a cultural symbol. Nowadays, users only need to input "Azuki style" and upload any image to instantly generate an image in this style, driving the growth of social media engagement through "meme" graphics.
According to bitsCrunch data, the floor price of the Azuki series has dropped about 44% from the peak of the same period last year, and other leading NFTs have also fallen significantly from their highs. However, with AI-generated styles and the subsequent release of films and works, will NFTs see development in "style ownership"?
Data source: bitscrunch.com
The Game Between Practicality and Bubble
The shrinkage of trading volume in the NFT market is not coincidental. The market saw a brief recovery in December 2023, mainly due to the hype around Bitcoin ecosystem inscriptions NFTs. According to bitsCrunch's data from the past six months, in December 2024, the concentrated release of tokens from traditional PFP projects brought a new wave of growth. By March 2025, monthly trading volume had fallen back to $110 million, with most of the trading volume concentrated in projects with strong community operations and real-world empowerment.
Data source: bitscrunch.com
However, we need to note that when AI can easily replicate styles, does the value of NFTs also need to shift towards "non-automatable experiences"—for example, offline rights, in-game utility, or deep binding of community consensus?
From "Static Ownership" to "Dynamic Co-Creation"
GPT-4o has brought shocks to many scenarios, but it has also spawned new possibilities. Although "dynamic NFTs" have been widely discussed since 2021, the improvement of AI tools today can bring more imagination. For instance, allowing holders to modify PFP styles in real-time through AI tools, with each modification being recorded on-chain, creating a traceable creative history. This model transforms NFTs from "static avatars" into a "living artistic co-creation process," thus fostering a new transformation of IP. At the same time, the openness of blockchain allows anyone to capture on-chain image data for training. Future competition will also shift towards "style patenting."
Conclusion
In the long run, the AI technology represented by GPT-4o may force the NFT industry to undergo a fundamental transformation and could bring about a new wave. NFTs can become a more generalized "metadata container," existing merely as proof of rights, while their visual representation is generated in real-time by users through AI. For example, in the music NFT field, 80% of album covers are co-created and customized by holders, but playback rights and revenue rights remain anchored to the original NFT. The ultimate fate of NFTs may not be extinction, but rather evolution into a more complex value network—when styles can form a type of ownership, true scarcity will return to humanity's need for community belonging, participation, and ongoing narrative.
