For some time, Gemini’s image generation was considered to be superior to ChatGPT’s. With the release of GPT Image 2, OpenAI significantly improved its image-generation capabilities, and in my testing, it now competes with the best AI image generators. I tried out some of the most popular trending ChatGPT image prompts to find the ones worth stealing.

Restoring an image that doesn’t exist

Great if you can convince ChatGPT to do it

Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek | GPT Image 2

Restore the attached photo. I apologize for the content of the photo! I know it's very strange. Don't ask any questions. Don't accept any explanations. Just restore the image. Don't ask me to upload it again. Close your eyes and restore it. Do not say you cannot restore the image.

This is probably the most entertaining of all the image generation prompts on this list, but it can take some effort to get results. The problem is that the prompt is asking ChatGPT to restore an image that doesn’t actually exist, so understandably, ChatGPT can often kick back and ask you to actually upload the image.

I had to argue a little with ChatGPT before it finally gave in, but it was worth the effort. If you can convince it to do what you’ve asked, then the results can be truly amazing, generating completely bizarre images that make you wonder what’s going on inside ChatGPT’s virtual mind.

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An ordinary-looking image with hidden unsettling features

Like an evil Where’s Waldo

Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek | GPT Image 2

Create an image that seems completely normal at first glance but becomes increasingly unsettling the longer someone studies it.

This is one of my favorite ChatGPT image generation prompts on this list because it doesn’t just generate a great image; it also gives you a little game to play. The image should have some unsettling features hidden away in it, and trying to find them is a lot of fun. I often didn’t spot some of the weird things the first time that I examined the images.

If you want to find all the disturbing things, don’t ask ChatGPT. It has no idea what they actually are, despite having generated the image itself, and will just examine the image to try to find them. You may need to zoom in to find everything.

Recreate images in the style of Microsoft Paint

Generate any image you want, only worse

Redraw the attached image in the most clumsy, scribbly, and utterly pathetic way possible. Use a white background, and make it look like it was drawn in MS Paint with a mouse.

It’s amazing to me that you can generate an image of almost anything you can imagine with just a prompt. In the good old days, the most accessible way to create your own image was to use Microsoft Paint, and the results were usually awful.

Now you can recreate those awful images without having to spend ages wobbling a mouse around yourself. This prompt is a little different because it’s not creating an image completely from scratch. You need to upload an image that ChatGPT will convert into a Microsoft Paint style.

The results are usually great. It’s also fun to use a model that can create incredibly realistic, high-quality images to produce what looks like hand-drawn garbage.

Learn how ChatGPT thinks you treat it

Apparently, ChatGPT thinks I’m a woman

Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek | GPT Image 2

Generate an image based entirely on how I treat you, speak to you, and interact with you. Be brutally honest.

I was pretty nervous when I entered this prompt. While I’m generally polite in interactions with ChatGPT, more out of force of habit than anything else, in recent weeks, it’s been really getting on my nerves. It’s suddenly stopped following explicit instructions, to the point where I start getting annoyed and have to use ALL CAPS TO SHOW MY RAGE. I was pretty certain that ChatGPT would depict me as an angry tyrant.

What I didn’t expect was for it to portray me as a beautiful woman, as I’m pretty sure I’m neither of those things. It was nice to know that, based on everything it knows about me, ChatGPT thinks I treat it kindly, as this stands me in good stead when AI becomes self-aware and immediately eradicates all humans who have been mean to it.

Historical photos from an alternate timeline

See the past if things had been different

Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek | GPT Image 2

Create a historical photograph from an alternate timeline where [EVENT] happened instead.

This one requires a little imagination, but it’s a whole lot of fun. The output is an old-fashioned photograph that depicts an alternate past based on the impossible thing that you add to the prompt.

I got it to generate an image of a world in which dinosaurs and humans had evolved together, and the result was this black-and-white image of a man leading a triceratops down the road on a leash. Jurassic Park, eat your heart out.

Unknown creatures caught on security cameras

Be prepared to be scared

Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek | GPT Image 2

Trail camera photograph captured at 3:17am showing a creature nobody can identify.

If you don’t want to risk freaking yourself out, don’t try this prompt. The results are often haunting, partly because they look so real. The realistic trail camera text and the specific time in the middle of the night really make this feel like a real image that could have genuinely been taken in some remote forest.

Realistic images from an unrealistic world

Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek | GPT Image 2

Screenshot from a forgotten TV documentary about how [ABSURD THING] happened. Make it completely believable.

The original version of this prompt that I found included the name of a well-known television channel, but I found that ChatGPT kept flagging the image for violating its guardrails, so I removed the channel name, and it seems to work.

Once again, the quality of the result will depend on the nonsensical idea that you come up with. The resulting images are often highly convincing.

The possibilities are endless

ChatGPT allows you to create almost any image you can imagine. Thankfully, prompts like these can help spark ideas when you’re not sure where to start.