An AI experiment, AI Bias and a Rude Awakening

The latest trend on LinkedIn this week seems to be people creating a figurine of themselves using ChatGPT and posting it on LinkedIn. I wanted to have a go to see what the hype was all about. But why do one for myself when I could do one for one of the team?! That would be way more fun 😉

My AI Experiment

I decided to have a go at creating a packaged figurine for one of the team who loves the van life, or as I put in my prompt, he’s a ‘Van Life Vanker’.

ChatGPT did pretty well with my prompt but spelt one of the words wrong. So I told it to correct it and it created another version and unbeknown to me it changed ‘Van Life Vanker’ to ‘Van Life Wanker’!!

And it still failed to fix the spelling mistake that I’d asked it to correct.

So I had a third attempt and decided to rewrite the sentence with the word it was struggling with and yet again I got a new version, this one also with ‘Van Life Wanker’ and the correct use of the new copy.

I totally missed the change from ‘Vanker’ to ‘Wanker’ in version two as I wasn’t looking for changes to anything but the copy I’d prompted it to correct.

Thankfully, I spotted it in the third version and initially thought I must have typed that into my prompt. But when I checked over my prompt I had put ‘Van Life Vanker’ and the first image it created used this. The second image is where GPT decided to change ‘Vanker’ to ‘Wanker’, all on it’s own, without my instruction.

Maybe AI has a cheeky sense of humour after all!

Is AI Biased?

For some reason, ChatGPT decided to make my Camper Man action figure a little chunky.

All I provided as part of my prompt was a picture of the person’s face, so why did it decide to give the character it created a heavy build?

There was no brief from me on build. Is it because its data of men who go campervanning contains more well-built chaps than leaner ones?

Or should I have given it a clear brief on build or height/weight ratio?

So I asked it, and here is what it said:

I said: Please tell me why you have decided that the Camper Man figurine should be quite stocky in build?

ChatGPT said: Great question! I went for a slightly stocky build on Camper Man to match the playful, cheeky tone of the character — a bloke who lives in a van, drinks white wine by the bottle, owns a Corgi, and is known to leg it around a campsite with just a pasta strainer. The rounder build:

1. Adds comedic weight (literally and figuratively) — it visually enhances the absurdity and charm of his antics.
2. Feels relatable — he’s not a chiselled action hero, he’s that guy at the campsite who barbecues shirtless, tells long stories about Glastonbury ‘98, and insists you try his homemade hummus.
   

ChatGPT said: That said — if you imagine him lankier, more wiry, or even totally shredded (van life gym bro, anyone?), I can definitely spin a new version! What’s your ideal body shape for Camper Man?

So GPT has made some assumptions here! I never told it that this figure drinks wine by the bottle. I asked for an accessory of a lady (his wife) to be included in the blister pack with him so the wine was, in my mind, for both of them.

Also, if this figure is known to ‘leg it around a campsite with just a pasta strainer’ that suggests, again in my mind, that he’d have a fitter physique. And I never said the guy ‘lived in the van’. So many incorrect assumptions here!!

The Result of My AI Experiment

This exercise proves that we must not rely on AI to get things right in marketing.

In this instance, it not only incorrectly wrote one of my words, but it then decided to change one of them from something slightly cheeky to something potentially offensive.

It also made subtle changes to the design each time I asked it to simply change one thing, so it didn’t follow instruction and just correct the copy. You’ll see the figure is wearing different outfits in each version, we gain an extra lady and sunglasses in the second one, etc.

The orange background is a different shade on each one; in fact, every item that is included is slightly different on each revision.

ChatGPT Action Man Figurine Prompts with the images

If you fancy having a go at creating your own figurine or better still, one for someone else, you might to copy and edit my prompt below:

The full prompts and resulting images are also below so you can see where I started and where GPT went wrong!

I said:

Create image. Create a toy of the person in the photo. Let it be an action figure wearing a t-shirt with the words ‘Van Life’ on it, shorts and a baseball cap. Next to the figure, there should be the toy’s equipment, each in its individual blisters 1) a VW campervan in white with orange trim 2) a Corgi dog and 3) a lady figurine with a face in the image attached and 4) a bottle of white wine. Don’t repeat the equipment under any circumstances. The card holding the blister should be a strong orange colour.On the top of the box, write ‘Camper Man’ and underneath it ‘Van Life Vanker’. At the bottom of the box write ‘Not suitable for small children. Has been known to run around campsites naked wearing nothing more than a metal pasta strainer.’ The figurine and equipment must all be inside blisters. Visualize this in a realistic way.

ChatGPT said: Getting started

ChatGPT said: ……

I said: Are you stuck?  (It took ages to create, so I asked if it was stuck!!)

ChatGPT said: All good now! Just needed a moment to cook up your custom “Camper Man” action figure. Here it comes:

ChatGPT said: Image created

ChatGPT said: Rate this image