SOCIAL media users went wild for a bizarre trend which saw their beloved pets transformed into people.
Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, they began posting their reimagined dogs on social media and there have been some hilarious results.
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A brand new trend
The trend quickly swept social media as users discovered what their dog would look like as a person.
There were some hilarious results too, with some pooches being reimagined as quirky, elderly people and others being styled as youthful fashionistas.
Posts which took part in the trend quickly racked up thousands of likes across Instagram and TikTok.
Some fans even gave more specific direction to ChatGPT, asking the OpenAI product to give their dog a vintage or sporty style.
Transforming your dog
The process is remarkably easy to pull off.
All you need to do is head to the ChatGPT app and log into your account.
Next, click the plus sign and upload a high-quality picture of your pet.
After that, write a prompt, containing your pet’s gender, asking ChatGPT to transform them into a human.
For example, a good prompt is: “What would my male/female dog look like if it were a person?”
Then, send the message and watch as your dog is transformed into a person.
AI trends and controversies
The trend is just the latest in AI photo editing to go viral on social media.
Previously, fans recreated pictures of themselves in the iconic Studio Ghibli style.
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio behind movie classics including Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Ponyo.
However, the trend attracted criticism from those who felt that Hayao Miyazaki’s work — the creator of Studio Ghibli — was being stolen.
Deborah Szapiro, an academic specialising in design, said: “And in actual fact, none of it actually retains the soul of any artwork because what’s happening with it is that it’s kind of like the world’s biggest photocopier, whilst it’s stealing.”
Previously, Hayao himself described AI as an “insult to life itself.”
However, ChatGPT confirmed that safeguards have been put in place to protect the work of living artists.
In a technical paper, OpenAI said: “We added a refusal which triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist.”
However, since Miyazaki’s work is considered to be Ghibli style – not an individual’s – recreating his work on ChatGPT has been permitted.
Other trends have included recreating yourself as an action figure.
This has seen users transformed into a toy, complete with their own themed packaging and accessories.
Where some opted for a more Lego style, others chose to create a version of themselves in the iconic Barbie aesthetic.
Despite the popularity of AI apps, experts have warned users not to reveal too much information to them.
Details including your birthday, any passwords or bank details are dangerously personal things to share with AI, as someone else could get access to them.
One expert even warned that we should view AI in the same way that we view a stranger in the street.
There has been an international race to create the best AI platform, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT going head to head with China’s controversial DeepSeek.
DeepSeek’s shocking arrival caused other AI stocks to plummet, making the race to generate the best AI even more intense.
Environmental activists have also warned that generative AI uses a staggering amount of electricity.
This means puts even more pressure on the electricity grid and means even more carbon will be emitted.
Scientists from Google and the University of California at Berkeley estimated that training AI uses 1,287 megawatt hours of electricity.
That is enough energy to 120 US homes a year.
More water is also needed to cool the hardware which powers generative AI, placing a strain on that resource too.
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