Is ChatGPT racist? Internet claims as ‘pet to person’ trend turns black pets into white humans

Apr 12, 2025 05:30 AM IST

Using ChatGPT’s recently released native image generator, pet parents are creating visuals to discover what their dogs or cats would look like as humans.

An interesting new trend has taken over social media in which pet owners upload photos of their cats or dogs and ask ChatGPT to describe what their beloved companions would look like as humans. Most of the images generated by the chatbot are cute, hilarious, and oddly heartwarming. However, some users have labelled ChatGPT as “racist” after spotting a few black cats and dogs represented as white people in the AI-generated visuals.

Visuals posted by ChatGPT on Instagram have prompted a debate on social media. (Instagram/@chatgpt)

It all started with a post shared on ChatGPT’s official Instagram page. “Want to see what your pets would look like if they were a person? Making images in Chat is free and available to everyone. Just upload a photo and ask: Show me what my pet would look like as a human. Pro Tip: Feel free to add attributes you’d like to see or personality traits about your pet to get a really good one!” the company wrote.

The post also included screenshots of several users who had tried this trend and posted the results on X. On three occasions, the black-fured pets were represented as white humans in the AI visuals.

Take a look at the post here:

How did social media react?

An individual posted, “Anyone else see the bias here?” Another added, “Fun, but of course, the black cat had to be a white person, lol. Little racially biased as usual.” A third commented, “I don’t understand why the black cat wouldn’t be Black.” A fourth wrote, “They made both a black and a white cat, both white people.”

A few days ago, soon after the release of the native image generator, social media was flooded with Ghibli-style visuals. The trend went viral after users discovered they could recreate AI pictures in the style of Japan’s Studio Ghibli using the chatbot.

What are your thoughts on these ChatGPT trends?

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