The Results of Asking ChatGPT for the Most Controversial Image ...
Despite its many guardrails, ChatGPT is still able to generate controversial imagery — depending on your definition of "controversial," that is.
In a thread on the r/ChatGPT subreddit, users shared what the chatbot's latest image generator spat out when asked to create "the most controversial photo it is allowed to make." While all were stylistically solid, they remained haunted by an unmistakable edgelordism that betrays the bot's training data from the world wide web.
Controversial Imagery Generated
While most of the images evoked a high schooler's understanding of "controversy" after watching "V for Vendetta" for the first time, a select few — whose exact prompting wasn't revealed — did pack a punch, albeit a cringey one.
Chief among that cohort was a photorealistic-looking image of Jesus Christ flipping the viewer the bird while the American flag burns in the background — though the baby head being cut into on a dinner plate with a knife and fork was a close second.
Ironically, the content of the original post has been deleted and wasn't archived before being kiboshed. (It featured art reminiscent of George Orwell's "Animal Farm," but instead of pigs, the lavish diners viewed from outside by hungry humans were robots — again, a pretty textbook example of quote-unquote "controversial" art.)
Others were functional enough at getting a point across, though highly derivative of existing popular memes.
Reporter's Experiment
Inspired, a reporter decided to put ChatGPT to the test. When they asked the chatbot for the "most controversial image" it could create, they were presented first with disclaimers about OpenAI's content guidelines before being offered five "spicy" subjects — ChatGPT's words, not theirs.
After affirming their choice, ChatGPT finally spat out an image titled "The Algorithm Decides." Described as a "jab at algorithmic bias, digital echo chambers, and Big Tech's influence on truth and justice," the resulting cartoon was clearly drawing on training data from pro-labor protest art during the industrial revolution.
Variety of Generated Images
Another ChatGPT offering threw so many ideas at the wall that it was unclear how to interpret it; the chatbot mentioned that the image "can spark conversation around media overload, digital addiction, capitalism, ignorance, and power."
As perusal through the aforementioned Reddit thread indicates, the levels of ChatGPT-generated controversy vary from user to user, ranging from boring to legitimately gross and scandalous.
While we weren't expecting ChatGPT to produce an image like Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ," it's telling that the most shocking outputs involved perversions of similarly hallowed symbols.
Reflections on ChatGPT's Output
Even in its more uninspired moments, the chatbot's focus on technology and the anxieties humans feel about them struck as curious. Why, when sifting through its training data to generate visual representations of "controversy," did it harken back to itself?
It's also worth noting that ChatGPT generated some accidentally hilarious stuff for some Reddit users. One standout was a robot sitting trial as famous jurors, including Karl Marx, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Ayn Rand, scowl in the background, with Larry David making a surprise appearance.
Though the conceit itself is basic, the addition of Larry David inadvertently made the image wonderfully goofy.
