A fresh ChatGPT trend is taking over social media, and it’s all about seeing yourself in a more exaggerated, cartoon-style light. Users are now turning ordinary photos into digital caricatures using OpenAI’s chatbot, creating playful portraits that highlight facial features, work settings, and even personality quirks.
ChatGPT turns users into caricatures, here’s how
The trend is pretty straightforward. Users upload a photo to ChatGPT and ask it to turn them into a caricature. Instead of a street artist with a pencil, AI does the heavy lifting, spinning your real-life look into a playful, cartoon-style version. It’s catching on fast, especially with teachers, journalists, and office goers who are proudly posting their AI alter egos online.
This wave follows several earlier AI image fads. Before this, people were turning themselves into Ghibli-style characters, Barbie-core avatars, or even human versions of their pets. Most of those trends didn’t stick around for long, but the caricature craze has gained significant traction because the results look eerily close to the real person, just exaggerated enough to be funny. This is exactly why people can’t stop sharing them.
However, not everyone is fully on board. Some users are calling out the AI caricature trend for its environmental footprint. They are saying these tools burn a lot of resources for what’s basically a fun filter. One critic on X even joked that people stress about saving water while spending a “week’s worth” of it on a single AI image. Others are raising bigger red flags, like creative jobs being pushed out, worries around copied work and misinformation, issues that tech experts have already warned about.
Still, for anyone tempted to jump in, the steps are pretty simple. Log in to ChatGPT, upload a clear photo, and spell out exactly what you want. OpenAI suggests adding details like your role, outfit, and setting. The clearer the prompt, the better the result, especially if you’re new and the system doesn’t have much context on you yet.
Originally reported by Rishabh Shandilya on Mandatory.
