You’ve probably been seeing them everywhere this week: playful cartoon versions of people filling your social feeds, each one leaning into exaggerated features and a handful of professional props. The first big social media craze of the year is all about turning yourself into an AI-driven caricature, and yes, ChatGPT is right at the centre of it. (It's not the first viral AI trend, who remembers ‘make it more’?)
Really, it works like a digital caricature artist you’d find at a fair, pitched in London's South Bank, or anywhere people are drunk enough to want an embarrassing portrait, but it's done by AI, and someone just lost their job. The idea is straightforward: give ChatGPT a photo and a prompt, and it generates a stylised image that looks like you, only pushed slightly into caricature. Features are oversized, the tone is whimsical, and there are visual cues that hint at what you do for a living.
