My dream is to one day pay independent artists to create personalized cover photos for each of my emails. Until then, I'm using ChatGPT to come up with some crazy things I find to be humorous and add to my writing.
For this week's email, I dropped the entire dialogue between myself and Big Sean outside his favorite boba tea spot in West Hollywood in ChatGPT and asked it to create a synopsis.
SYNOPSIS: The narrative humorously portrays PERSON 1 confronting PERSON 2 over disappointment in PERSON 2’s recent musical output. Despite PERSON 1’s admiration for PERSON 2’s talent, particularly for clever and inspirational lyrics, they express frustration over perceived laziness and clichéd writing. PERSON 1 offers pointed criticism about the importance of editing and clever wordplay, suggesting practical improvements through studying literature and cinema classics. The conversation escalates into playful tension and confusion, ultimately shifting into comedic territory as PERSON 1 interacts warmly with PERSON 2's partner, further confusing and provoking PERSON 2. Themes include artistic integrity, constructive criticism, humor, admiration, and playful rivalry.
Good synopsis, ChatGPT. Now, can you please turn it into an image prompt for me?
Here's a creative and detailed image prompt based on the provided synopsis and original text:
Illustrate a humorous and dynamic street confrontation on a sunny afternoon outside a trendy boba tea shop. PERSON 1, visibly taller and animatedly expressive, has just dramatically slapped a boba tea out of PERSON 2's hand, sending the drink airborne. PERSON 2, shorter and confused but slightly amused, looks surprised and puzzled. Nearby, PERSON 2’s partner and child watch calmly, entertained and unbothered by the exaggerated chaos. The scene should capture a playful, comedic mood rather than aggression, highlighting PERSON 1’s dramatic frustration contrasted by PERSON 2’s puzzled composure. Background elements like pedestrians turning their heads, spilled boba tea on the ground, and vibrant colors characteristic of West Hollywood enhance the humor and playful tension of the moment.
I then asked for an image that matched that description:
Funny and unexpected, but not what I was going for. Another case of Ai thinking that only white people exist.
I responded, This is a great start, you're accurately portraying everything we need to show, but there are various places for improvement. First, I need the image to be landscape, 1200px x 630px, please. Second, I want the people illustrated to be people of color, Black and Brown with tattoos and other things, not all need to have tattoos. Third, we need it to be clearer that one person was holding the boba and that the other person knocked it out of their hands, in this image it seems one person is surprised because a man throwing a boba tea suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Please summarize the image update instructions I gave you and wait for my confirmation to generate the new image.
ChatGPT confirmed the instructions I gave it and then created a new image:
Somehow, we went from please no White people to making everyone even whiter than before. Incredible work, ChatGPT. I do have to commend you on the scared, fallen child who also spilled his boba tea on the sidewalk and everyone is refusing to help because they're too busy recording buff Lil' Xan having a robot-dance competition with some nerd on the sidewalk.
I responded, I prefer the first image you generated. Please give that one another shot and keep the same type of image, very comic book, anime style. In that first image, the onlookers were almost perfect, just work on the image of one person knocking a boba tea out of the other person's hand more. Give it another shot, my publishing agency depends on this.
That's when I got:
Better, I think? I love the scene of the people watching the confrontation. Thumbs up for that. However, it still seems like it's not easy for ChatGPT to make images of people that aren't White. It also really enjoys making that one bystander lady on the right side always have denim booty shorts. Who's got the denim booty shorts fetish over at OpenAI, Samuel? 🧐
More things I love: the cups of boba tea just flying around everywhere. This is excellent. More of this. It still can't figure out how to properly depict, “smacking something out of someone else's hand,” but flying boba tea? Nailed it. And I haven't even gotten in to how the boba spill looks like the guy's head is exploding.
I responded, Much closer, please do this image again, but the man in the green pants should be Black and the guy screaming in rage at the boba should be more Latino looking. Please don't change much, only exactly what I told you.
ChatGPT said:
Damn, now it looks like Big Sean is fighting me! And he's winning!
This isn't what I was going for, ChatGPT!
Thank you for listening and actually making the person I asked to be Black, Black. I'm not sure how the david not david character looks Latino, but then again, what does a Puerto Rican really look like? The fetish for a White/Asian chick in denim booty shorts continues on the right side, and the onlookers continue to cycle through different versions of the same person in each spot.
Does this look like a group of people who might witness an altercation outside a boba tea spot in West Hollywood? Hell if I know, I don't drink boba tea, and I've never been to California.
We're so close to getting right, so I told ChatGPT, Invert the boba action happening between PERSON 1 and PERSON 2.
Damn, “Big Sean” is still whooping my ass, but this time it looks like he smacked me across the face with a boba tea cup and it exploded. It also didn't spill anything because he still has a full cup in his hand. The purple-haired girl, Black guy, and White/Asian girl with denim booty shorts crew on the right continues to hold strong, and they even brought a new member. Meanwhile, the LA bros on the left are still intrigued. What a life in West Hollywood.
I decided to see how far we could push this.
Hey, ChatGPT, make it more anime and more irreverent.
“Big Sean” is White again, but this time it looks like he's about to go super saiyan. Somehow, I'm trying to stop him while still holding a boba tea in my hand.
Our diverse crew on the right has changed with the purple-hair girl becoming a green-hair guy with tattoos, and one of the dudes on the left is rocking a sports bra, which he makes work. Props to him. I must say, the calves of the character who's supposed to be me look strong af. No Johnny Drama here.
This is nice, but we can keep going.
Hey, ChatGPT, MORE.
Things are looking up, once again I requested, MOREEEEE!!!!
Ultimately, this was the illustration I went for as the cover photo for the email, but I wanted to ask one last time to see what ChatGPT would give.
I said, DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE THE SCARED CHILDREN!
ChatGPT didn't understand “children,” but it definitely made everyone look even more scared:
What did we learn today?
ChatGPT really has trouble generating people who aren't White, who would've thought?
ChatGPT has a hard time rendering, someone knocking something out of someone else's hand.
ChatGPT can make a boba tea exploding look really cool.
ChatGPT has a thing for White/Asian girls in denim booty shorts, is this related to not being able to generate Black people? 🧐
If you enjoyed this post, I'm going to try to share more of these behind-the-scenes breakdowns of how I make some things for the emails, including lots of different AI-illustration iterations.
If you come across this post, but have never read my emails, take a look at the story of how I decided to confront Big Sean over the lyrics of his most recent album.