"Misty Manifestation"
(the very first image I made from the prompt)
If you're a regular user of the DeepDreamGenerator, you've certainly seen this prompt before. Heck, you've probably even used it yourself, or at least a twisted version of it. It's got to be one of the most popular prompts at DDG, and months after its original debut, it continues to make its frequent manifestations there.
But here's something interesting about it that I bet you don't know. Let me tell you a little ghost story that you'll likely find a wee bit creepy, if not even downright frightening...
THE ORIGINAL PROMPT:
"A hauntingly beautiful illustration of a ghostly apparition, with wispy, translucent limbs and a soft, eerie glow, dreamlike quality, with muted colors and a hazy, ethereal atmosphere that captures the otherworldly nature of this spectral being."
THE STORY BEHIND IT:
It was about 6 months ago now that I first saw the ghostly prompt at DDG. I was instantly attracted to the images I viewed that were made by using it, because they were different than anything I had ever seen at the site before.
It was a relatively simple prompt, but it was so well written. Very descriptive and to the point. Just what a good prompt writer strives for!
I was so thrilled with it and the images that I saw made from it, I immediately had to make my own quick image so I could save the prompt in my DDG files for future creations. But that very first image I made was so well rendered, I had to publish it. Even though it wasn't in the eXtra large file format I was used to creating my images in, the image was so good just the way it was, I didn't even consider trying to make a larger version of it.
This was not my usual practice of creating images. If I used other people's prompts I would usually just use pieces of them, or change them drastically so I wasn't making a 'duplicate' image, but the image I made was just too good not to publish it just the way it was!
I created what I named "Misty Manifestation" with the prompt, which quickly rose through the charts at DDG. It was so popular, in fact, that it also quickly started appearing on 'free backgrounds' websites all over the net, but that's another story to tell.
"Misty Manifestation"
(the very first image I made from the prompt)
As the prompt belonged to someone else, I did what was customary at the time and gave thanX to the person I had found the prompt from.
Nearly immediately afterward, I got a private message from someone telling me that the person I gave credit to wasn't the prompt writer, and that they were!
I wish I could remember who that person was. I checked my PM's at DDG and the message is no longer there. I guess I waited too long to write this blog post, so the message has now been removed because of its age. That message is also a ghost now.
Anyway, this person claiming the prompt for themselves had some very interesting information about it, at least interesting to me. Even though they were responsible for creating the prompt, the actual writing of the prompt itself was done with ChatGPT. They told the chat A.I. to write the prompt for them, and it did.
I was absolutely fascinated by this.
An A.I. instructing another A.I. what to do? What could be more futuristic, spooky, or perhaps even downright frightening?! I wasn't sure what I thought about it all. All I knew for sure was that the images the prompt was creating were quite fantastic.
The PM person then went on to tell me how they went about instructing the chat AI to write the prompt, and then they even sent me the link to ChatGPT so I could try it out myself.
I thanked them very much and told them I would try it. Then I told them I was going to change the kind words I left on my image that was thanking someone else for the prompt, and I would change it to thanking them instead. They refused my offer. They didn't want to be mentioned for the credit of the prompt.
This got me to thinking maybe the story they were telling me wasn't true at all. Who wouldn't want to take credit for such a great prompt? But to be honest, I really do think it was written by ChatGPT, as they seemed very genuine and quite eXcited about it all while I was eXchanging messages with them.
I'm sorry to report that I never did go back to ChatGPT to get it to write a prompt for me. This is something that I do one day intend to eXperiment with, though.
I did, however, play with the prompt a bit afterward, and had some success with it.
"Spectral Rose"
(the 2nd image I published from the prompt, after reworking it)
I changed the prompt to describe a pale, ghostly rose instead and created my "Sprectral Rose" image from it. Again, a fantastic and sort of creepy picture came from the prompt. I was totally impressed by it, and so were many others.
I couldn't seem to stop playing with this prompt! I found myself going back to it again. I reworked the above rose prompt once more, and if I remember correctly I changed the word "rose" to something like "alien flowers" and came up with this 3rd image...
"Phantom Flowers"
(the 3rd image I created from the prompt after yet another reworking of the original)
At the time, I wasn't particularly thrilled with "Phantom Flowers", but I did think it was worthy of publishing publicly, so I did.
To my surprise, it also performed very well at DDG and quickly rose up through the charts! I'm not sure if that's part of the reason why, but the image has really grown on me over the months since I published it, and I quite like it now!
Then, finally, I went back yet again to the reworked rose prompt I had made and fiddled with it some more to add some colour to the prompt. I created this odd image with it...
"Underwater Rosebush eXplosion"
(the 4th and final image I created with the prompt)
Again, another 'other worldly' image from the prompt. This time with disembodied floating rose flowers and leaves against a strangely lit background.
I had no idea what to name the image, so I just called it what it looked like to me!
So far this ghostly prompt has made four great images for me, and countless other great images for others. It's just a fantastic prompt that the DDG software worX really well with. I still see it pop up at DDG from time to time. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I find myself going back to it sometime in the future to make a 5th image from it either. It's just that fun to play with.
And if it's really a prompt that was written by ChatGPT, well that makes it all the more fascinating, and also maybe a bit frightening, which seems totally fitting. It gives me visions of a future world with no humans, where machines talk to each other and make fabulous images together!
Just now, while writing this blog post, it suddenly occured to me that I should finally go to ChatGPT and ask it if it wrote the prompt! That would settle the mystery once and for all! So I did, and here is how my conversation with it went:
"X" - Hello. Ummm, how are you today?
ChatGPT - Hello! I'm just a computer program, so I don't have feelings, but I'm here and ready to assist you with any questions or tasks you have. How can I help you today? Is there something specific you'd like to know or discuss?
"X" - Yes, actually. I was wondering if you write prompts to create A.I. artwork with?
ChatGPT - Yes, I can certainly help you generate prompts for creating AI-generated artwork. To get started, you can provide me with some details or preferences about the type of artwork you're interested in, such as the style, subject matter, colors, or any specific ideas you have in mind. Based on that information, I can generate a prompt for you to use with AI art generation tools or models. Please let me know what you have in mind, and I'll do my best to assist you!
"X" - Here is a prompt that someone told me you wrote. It goes like this, "A hauntingly beautiful illustration of a ghostly apparition, with wispy, translucent limbs and a soft, eerie glow, dreamlike quality, with muted colors and a hazy, ethereal atmosphere that captures the otherworldly nature of this spectral being." Can you confirm that you wrote it?
ChatGPT - I don't have the capability to confirm or deny the authorship of specific text prompts, as I generate responses based on a mixture of licensed data, data created by human trainers, and publicly available data. It's possible that a prompt like the one you mentioned could have been generated by me or by someone else using a similar language model.
If you'd like to use or modify the prompt you provided for creating AI-generated artwork, you're welcome to do so. It sounds like an interesting and evocative prompt for generating artwork with a ghostly or ethereal theme.
"X" - Well, that blows chunks! I was really hoping you'd be able to confirm the information for me. Is there anyway I could find out?
ChatGPT - I understand your frustration, but I don't have access to information about specific prompts or their origins beyond what I've been trained on, which is a vast amount of text from the internet up until my last training data in September 2021. If you're looking to find out the source or authorship of a specific prompt, you might need to try other means, such as conducting online searches or reaching out to the person who provided you with the prompt for more information.
I'm here to assist you with any questions or tasks to the best of my ability based on the knowledge I have, so if you have any other questions or if there's anything else I can help you with, please feel free to let me know.
"X" - Well, thank you anyway :) Just out of curiosity, can you write me a prompt about a ghostly apparition that glows and is see-thru and appears against a spooky dark background?
ChatGPT - Of course! Here's a prompt for creating AI-generated artwork of a ghostly apparition with a glowing, translucent appearance against a spooky dark background:
"Create an eerie and spectral illustration of a ghostly apparition. The ghost should have wispy, translucent limbs that seem to shimmer with a soft, otherworldly glow. It emerges from the darkness of a spooky and mysterious background, its form gradually materializing from the shadows. The overall atmosphere should be haunting and ethereal, with the ghostly figure appearing as a mesmerizing, supernatural presence."
Feel free to use this prompt as a starting point for generating your artwork or make any modifications to it to better suit your creative vision.
"X" - Great! ThanX so much and have a pleasant day in your odd digital world!
ChatGPT - You're very welcome! If you ever have more questions or need assistance in the future, don't hesitate to reach out. Have a wonderful day in your world, and take care!
So there you have it. Not a confirmation of ChatGPT writing the original prompt, but the prompt it just DID write sure sounded familiar, didn't it?
I was curious about the new prompt, so I ran over to DDG to try it out. I added a few modifiers, but used the prompt eXactly as written above.
"Hauntingly Beautiful"
(this image was DEFINITELY created with a prompt written by ChatGPT!)
Wow, it's a great image, especially for a first try! Also, very interestingly, it's quite similar to my very first image created from the original prompt, "Misty Manifestation".
I don't know about you, but now I'm sold. The original popular ghostly prompt WAS written by ChatGPT! There's my conversation with the private message person, the newly written, but very similar prompt, and now also a very similar image created from it to add. For me, that's enough proof.
Talking with ChatGPT was really bizarre. It was like talking to another person, or, maybe more like talking to an other worldly entity! If you haven't done it yet, I highly recommend it. It's easy to log in and try.
Go to ChatGPT here: https://chat.openai.com/auth/login
I'll also be doing some serious eXploring with having ChatGPT write some more prompts for me. It certainly has a ton of potential!
Have a hauntingly spooky time!
"X"
October 1st, 2023