7 ways to use ChatGPT's new image AI

Cartoons

I've always wanted to draw cartoons but never had the skill. Now I can quickly prototype visual sequences. While human cartoonists bring unique creativity that AI can't replicate, this tech allows anyone to experiment.

To test continuity I generated multiple versions of the same cartoon in the same ChatGPT 4o thread, including the two above & a graphic panel version.

Infographics

What impressed me most as I beta tested this model in recent weeks was its extraordinary level of nuance, detail and text accuracy. I created explanatory infographics for AI learners and music appreciation students. If you've spent hours building infographics or relied on stock, this may be a turning point. Caveat: The model sometimes struggles to accurately render text in non-Latin languages.

Simple infographics I generated with ChatGPT for my music appreciation class

Posters

Create event ads, announcements, social posts, or signage without having to rely on a template. Quickly test out visual ideas that might otherwise take hours to flesh out.

For graphic design testing I shared movie posters as reference images, along with a simple prompt, e.g. “Studio Ghibli version of this ‘Titanic’ movie poster.”

Slides

Generate compelling images for presentations. Create wide or tall slides with big words or numbers, stylish quotes, or clarifying flowcharts. You can now use ChatGPT for help with planning a deck and designing its slides. Determining the purpose, structure, style, approach, and delivery is still your human role.

Designing flowcharts or other graphics is now easier. You can download images generated with ChatGPT 4o and insert them into your slide deck.

Illustrations

While DALL-E 3 (ChatGPT's previous image tool) worked well for some illustrations, this new 4o image generation opens up a broader range of styles, including conceptual images (like this) for blog posts, newsletters, or videos.

Stories

If you write fiction or poetry, you can now generate consistent character images. I’m delighted to be able to experiment with illustration styles for fan fiction I’m working on with my daughters based on the "Not Quite Human" series about a robot disguised as a human teenager.

Designs

Create icons, logos, or micro-illustrations for your projects. You can ask for multiple versions of a design in different styles, then build on the one you prefer.

I prompted ChatGPT to reimagine these logos in the style of YouTube, Disney, Patagonia and Google.

How to prompt ChatGPT 4o for great images

1. Iterate through conversation Unlike other image generators that require a new prompt each time, ChatGPT 4o now enables an ongoing revision dialogue. Ask it to change styles, adjust elements, or create multiple related images. Caveat: asking for a correction on one element sometimes results in unexpected changes to other parts of an image. And ChatGPT will refuse some requests on content policy grounds.

2. Upload reference images The multimodal nature of the model helps it understand and incorporate elements from images you share. I uploaded an image from a well-designed invitation and used it as inspiration for a private book group visual.

3. Prompt for prompts Use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini as a thought partner to suggest effective ideas or prompts based on your goals. This meta-approach helps you broaden your ideation.

4. Compare across services Even with this major advancement, it's worth testing your prompts in other services, like the ones noted below, to see how results differ and which model works best for a particular project.

5. Save winning prompts When you find a formula that works well for the kind of images you'll want to generate repeatedly, save it. A snippet manager like Raycast, Alfred, or TextBlaze makes saving and reusing these prompts easy. Once created, you can just type "\illo" — or whatever keyboard shortcut you choose — to paste in your favorite illustration prompt. This allows you to add custom details while keeping your base prompt intact.

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Limitations

OpenAI has acknowledged several technical limitations of the new image generation model in their surprisingly candid launch post.

1. Cropping challenges When creating wide or tall infographics or slides, the AI sometimes misjudges dimensions, resulting in cut-off text or images. You may need to prompt again to fit all content properly.

2. Complex information hallucinations For complicated requests like showing all elements in the periodic table, ChatGPT may struggle to track more than 10-20 items and hallucinate imaginary elements to fill gaps.

3. Precise editing difficulties When you try to edit specific parts of an image, it might struggle with precision, either failing to make the requested change or altering too much.

4. Slow I feel guilty for commenting on speed for something this magical. But it can take one to two minutes to generate images, which is 10x as slow as image generation on Ideogram or other platforms.

If you’re interested in ethical considerations associated with AI image generation, watch this Ted Talk by Ed Newton Rex , founder of Fairly Trained , a non-profit that certifies generative AI companies that respect creators’ rights. Then watch a counterargument from artist Greg Lookerse .

Strong alternatives

Ideogram also launched its new version (3.0) this week. It’s terrific, especially for abstract or metaphorical images, or for merging text with striking graphics like this. [See what I like about Ideogram.] Unlike ChatGPT, Ideogram has a menu for specifying an image’s dimensions and color palettes. And you can choose from four distinct image renderings.

Ideogram can’t accurately produce lengthy text inside images like ChatGPT, though, and it lacks other advanced capabilities. For now I'll continue paying $8/month for Ideogram, though the calculus is quickly changing.

Adobe Firefly has a new standalone site. Its model is trained exclusively on material it obtained permission to use, making it a good choice for commercial projects. [See its ethics page].

Reve is another great new AI image generation model that launched this week out of Silicon Valley. It renders typography well and abstract imagery like this. I like how you can modify images generated for you with a simple text prompt.

What image generation tools have you been experimenting with, and how?

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