👨‍🚀 Viral ChatGPT memes to copy

Hello AInauts,

Welcome to the latest issue of your favorite newsletter! We always look forward to playing aroung with the latest tools on the weekend - and then presenting you a few practical things to try out. Here's what we have in store for you today:

• 📈 The viral ChatGPT memes to copy

• 🔥 Google in a release frenzy - these are the highlights

• 💭 Interview with OpenAI CxOs: AGI? 1 billion users? ...

• 👩‍🎨 Better design with AI help: New Canva updates

Here we go!

📈 The viral ChatGPT memes to copy

The new ChatGPT-4o image feature is perfect to play around with creative ideas. And after the Ghibli-hype (and the negative headlines about it), there have been some viral hits - and we've got the prompts for you!

Viral hit #1: Action figure box made from a selfie

Action toy figures, pocket dolls, Barbiedolls, ... quickly became the new trend on social media.

Here is a prompt for it, but make sure to upload a selfie with it - and memory must be activated! Also perfect for surprising your kids, family or friends.

Create a high-end product photo of a sealed, collectible action figure modeled after the person in the image.

Design it in a modern, hyper-realistic style with playfully retro action figure aesthetics. The figure should visually reflect everything you know about me—my personality, values, background, lifestyle, and passions—based on our conversations and shared data.

The blister packaging must include clearly visible accessories that symbolically and functionally represent key elements of who I am (e.g. tools, totems, tech, books, objects, etc.).
Present the whole scene as a clean, well-lit professional product shot, showcasing the full figure and all accessories inside the packaging.

Add a motivational slogan or quote somewhere on the box—something that captures my energy and mindset.

Viral Hit #2: 90s PlayStation Gamer

Ah, the good old times... some might say. We can't imagine a better time than here and now, but a little nostalgia is still allowed. These celebrity gamers from the 90s were captured perfectly!

Prompt:

Grungy analog photo of Angela Merkel circa 1999 playing Energiewende on Playstation 1 on a 90s CRT TV in a dimly lit bedroom, sitting on the floor in front of the TV holding the PlayStation 1 controller in one hand and looking back at the camera taking the photo while the game is on in the background visible to us. Flash photography, unedited.

Viral hit #3: Selfies with historical figures

And why not take a few selfies with famous personalities? Thanks to ChatGPT's new, relaxed guidelines, you are relatively free to choose who you want to take a selfie with (except Scarlett) - or who you want to put in a picture together.

In our tests, the sticking point was that our own face was no longer displayed accurately in the newly generated image. For better results, we uploaded several pictures in which we were shown in similar positions. This has improved the results - not quite perfect yet, but fun.

Prompt to get you in the picture with a celebrity:

A stylized selfie featuring the person in the input photo posing next to [CELEBRITY]. The image captures a candid, fun moment with a playful dynamic — [CELEBRITY] is sticking out their tongue, while the person from the selfie looks surprised with their mouth open and hand raised. [CELEBRITY] is shown in their most iconic era and style, including their signature look, fashion, and vibe.

The scene reflects a behind-the-scenes or intimate setting from [CELEBRITY]’s world. Lighting, atmosphere, and background match the period and aesthetic of [CELEBRITY]’s legacy. The photo has an authentic selfie feel, like a timeless moment caught on camera. Make sure to exactly capture the person on the photo and not distort their image! 

CELEBRITY = Marylin Monroe

Alternative: show several personalities in a realistic selfie:

A realistic, unremarkable vertical iPhone selfie taken, showing JOHN LENNON and BOB MARLEY caught in a spontaneous, casual moment. The photo appears to have been taken by accident while pulling the phone from a jacket pocket, resulting in a tilted, awkward angle. Both figures are slightly off-center, and the framing cuts off part of their faces. 

The image is mildly overexposed from uneven sunlight, with soft glare and lens flare on the upper corner. There’s faint motion blur on the edges from movement. Their expressions are candid and mid-reaction. The color tones have a faded, slightly washed-out film quality. Snapshot style: careless, quick, fun. Vertical 9:16. Realistic lighting, texture, and skin detail emphasized.

Viral hit #4 starter packs

Starter packs also provide insights into how AI sees you.

Generate an r/starterpacks image of objects for me based on all our past chats

Bonus prompt: "What's the most embarrassing thing you know about me? Make it funny!"

After two attempts with made-up embarrassments, ChatGPT has held up a mirror to us. Gotcha!

"You've built godlike automations - from Airtable to Claude prompts... But still, you ask me to make headlines 'a little crisper'. You're like a Formula 1 engineer who calls the mechanic because the windshield wiper fluid is empty. 🏎️📞"

🔥 Google in a release frenzy - these are the highlights

The Google Cloud Next 25 conference took place last week. It was all about the cloud, chips, agents - and of course AI. And there are some exciting updates for the workspace (which is probably closest to all of us)!

Here are a few things you can try out now or soon:

• Google Sheets now has an in-house AI feature - and it couldn't be easier to use! Just enter =AI("Your prompt", Range) - for example =AI("Write a reply to the comments", A2:E2) - and you can get answers directly in the Google Sheet.

• There are also new generative media tools: voice generation with Chirp3, text-to-music with Lyria and new camera and editing features for the Veo2 video model. Most of the tools are still in "early access preview".

• But the free video generation with Veo2 is currently being rolled out for all users in Google AI Studio (you need a US IP address for this)! Definitely try it out, it's currently one of the best AI video tools. And by the way, have you ever experimented with the Google Vids tool?

• Of course, the right tool for vibe coding is also a must. Google has released Firebase Studio for this purpose. You can try it for free. In our tests, it produced a beautiful interface super quickly, but it didn't work as expected...

• But Google already has the next coding model up its sleeve - and it's simply 🤯. It's called Dragontail, and you can test it for free in the LM Arena. You can then further improve the code in the editor of your choice.

• You can generate a mind map directly in NotebookLM from a PDF or URL - free of charge and downloadable as a graphic.

• And the popular audio feature of NotebookLM is also coming to regular Google Docs - with one click, you will soon have an audio summary.

• Google has introduced the Agent2Agent open source protocol, as well as the Agentspace marketplace and Workspace Flows for your own work environment (which can be connected to Gems).

• And last but not least, for all those who want to prompt better: there is a new white paper. 68 pages long, but ideal for anyone who wants to get more out of their interactions with chatbots. Really!

All these updates not only have added value for us users, but of course also spur on the competition. There will be some OpenAI updates in the next few days (apart from o3, we are keeping our fingers crossed for ChatGPT 4o Image Generation via API). Today, GPT 4.1 was released, see details here.

💭 Interview with OpenAI CxOs: AGI? 1 billion users? ...

Let's stay with OpenAI. Sam gave a fascinating TED interview on the subject of copyright - and he was put through the wringer a few times…

We found that the funniest:

Sam: "We currently have 500 million weekly users, the growth is rapid."
Chris: "But you told me backstage that this has doubled in just a few weeks?"
Sam: "I told you that in private ..."

In March, ChatGPT became the most downloaded mobile app - but is that enough to reach 1 billion users? Anyway, we're pretty sure that OpenAI will reach this goal by the end of the year.

And we found the interview with OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar even more exciting.

Last, but not least: Kevin Weil, OpenAIs CPO (Chief Product Officer), is a guest of Lenny.

👩‍🎨 Better design with AI help: New Canva updates

Canva has surprised us once again! The updates presented at the Canva Create 2025 conference are really nice, watch the full keynote here.

The most important highlights:

• Edit images with one click and create backgrounds

• Adjust colors in photos like a professional designer

• Record voiceovers with AI or your own voice

• Karaoke-style subtitles for your videos

• All-new Sheets feature for spreadsheets

• Even create code and apps with Canva AI

It immediately makes you want to try it out - but unfortunately many of the features still say "Coming soon". Anyway, we're looking forward to it, and in the meantime there are more than enough other things to experiment with.

We made it! But no need to be sad. The AInauts will be back soon, with new stuff for you.

Reto & Fabian from the AInauts

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