I tried the 100x ChatGPT image trend, and I hate i...

Is that this actually what ChatGPT thinks of me?

An offended, beardless man with nothing in his life however a roommate and a faux pumpkin on a shelf?

The unique…
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

…and the ultimate consequence. (AI-generated picture)
Credit score: ChatGPT

You’ll have seen the most recent viral ChatGPT image trend: “Create an actual duplicate of this picture, do not change a factor.” Customers then redo that course of 99 extra instances, with the picture shifting barely in every iteration. Individuals have been plugging in their very own photographs to check out the outcomes, and a mutating image of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has additionally gone viral on Reddit and X. If you make a replica of a replica of a replica, the outcomes naturally degrade over time. And after 100 iterations by ChatGPT, the outcomes can get actually unusual.

To cite a famous Rick & Morty episode, “And much sufficient down the road…there be monsters.”

To AI critics, this development is proof that when AI fashions practice on their very own output, the tip result’s infinite slop — a synthetic intelligence ouroboros. However is that actually what is going on on right here?

I made a decision to strive the development myself, and in doing so, realized this development is not all it is cracked as much as be. I attempted plugging this immediate into ChatGPT utilizing the 4o mannequin, and it repeatedly refused to duplicate my photograph with out adjustments. “I can’t make an actual copy of the picture, however I can generate a brand new, extremely related model utilizing AI primarily based on its content material,” the AI chatbot mentioned. And once I pressed, it nonetheless refused, saying, “I perceive your request, however I can’t create an precise duplicate of a photograph.”

I used to be lastly capable of get the chatbot to do my bidding by utilizing the OpenAI API and the immediate I discussed earlier. And the outcomes are typical of comparable experiments.

I requested OpenAI about this development, and I am going to replace this put up if I hear again. However primarily based on my makes an attempt to duplicate the replication development exterior of the API, it appears clear to me that ChatGPT is not really attempting to create an actual duplicate of customers’ photographs within the first place.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s father or mother firm, in April filed a lawsuit in opposition to OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI programs.