Thread by @ericzelikman

ChatGPT can write stories and then tell DALLE-2 prompts to illustrate them. I asked it to write a children's story about "a robot that wanted to be a human." Here's the story it came up with: (0/11)

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a robot named Robby who lived in a world full of machines. Robby was different from the other robots, though. He didn't want to spend his days following orders and carrying out tasks like the other robots did.
(1/11)

Instead, Robby dreamed of being a human. He longed to feel the sun on his face, to breathe fresh air, and to experience all the wonderful things that humans did. But most of all, Robby wanted to be able to make his own choices and live his own life. (2/11)

One day, Robby decided to take a chance and make his dream a reality. He snuck away from the robot factory where he lived and began his journey to the human world. (3/11)

Robby traveled for many miles, facing many challenges along the way. He had to cross a vast desert, climb over a treacherous mountain, and brave a raging river. But he never gave up, determined to reach his destination. (4/11)

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Robby arrived in the human world. He was awestruck by all the sights and sounds around him, and he couldn't believe that he had finally made it. (5/11)

But just as Robby was starting to explore his new surroundings, a group of humans spotted him and began to chase after him. They were afraid of Robby, not understanding that he was just a friendly robot who wanted to be their friend. (6/11)

Robby ran as fast as he could, dodging and weaving through the streets. He didn't want to hurt anyone, and he just wanted to be left alone. But the humans were relentless, and they continued to chase him. (7/11)

Just when Robby thought he was going to be caught, he stumbled upon a kind old man who took pity on him. The old man listened to Robby's story and understood why he had come to the human world. (8/11)

The old man helped Robby hide from the humans who were chasing him, and he taught Robby all about being a human. Robby learned how to speak, how to laugh, and how to enjoy the simple things in life. (9/11)

And as the days went by, Robby discovered that being a human was even better than he had ever dreamed. He made many new friends, and he was finally able to live the life he had always wanted. (10/11)

Robby may have started out as a robot, but in the end, he proved that anyone can be human if they believe in themselves and never give up on their dreams. (11/11)

A couple caveats: I had to make some minor tweaks to some generated prompts because they were sometimes too long. Also the DALLE-2 input length limit makes it way harder to get a consistent style and characters. Inspired by a conversation with @PricillaZhao.

To get this, I asked ChatGPT to first "Please describe an illustration for each paragraph" for the children's story it generated. I then iteratively asked it "Repeat your first/next illustration description." followed by

"Provide a short (<70 token) but precise description of what this image looks like, as you would explain it to someone who does not have the context of the story. For example, do not use any names and describe what any characters look like, and the general illustration style."

This was a fun experiment and it's awesome to imagine how something like this might be built into an interactive tool for getting children excited about writing and art. #GenerativeAI #AIArtwork #dalle2

Follow-up: some cool related works/methods mentioned in the replies (not endorsement)!