The trend follows a familiar pattern. Earlier in 2025, ChatGPT users turned themselves into Studio Ghibli characters, Barbies, and even “humanized” their pets. Each wave of AI image generation goes viral, burns bright, and fades. Caricatures are the latest flavor — and for now, the appetite seems strong.

Working professionals across industries have embraced the feature with enthusiasm. Social media feeds are packed with cartoon versions of doctors in scrubs, lawyers at their desks, and baristas behind espresso machines. Most users report being impressed by the accuracy — exaggerated features aside, the likenesses are surprisingly close.

Not everyone is amused, though. Environmental concerns around AI’s resource consumption surfaced almost immediately. Dean Gleberry captured the frustration in a Feb. 5 post on X: “Growing up being asked to turn the water off while we brush our teeth to conserve while the same generation is out here using a week’s worth of water to create an ai caricature whilst also complaining that more data centers are being built to house their data.”

Beyond water and energy use, broader questions linger. A report from IBM notes that the rapid expansion of advanced AI systems like ChatGPT has “inspired concern” about issues including plagiarism and misinformation — problems baked into technology designed to understand and generate human-like content. Some users also flagged discrepancies in the caricatures themselves, from oddly shaped hands to misplaced accessories.

Getting your cartoon portrait takes just a few steps:

1) Log in to your OpenAI ChatGPT account (or create one),

2) Upload a reference photo, and

3) Type a prompt describing what you want. A simple starting point: specify whether the subject is male or female, human or pet, and describe the pose you’d like. Don’t forget to include the word ‘caricature’!

OpenAI recommends going heavy on the details. Mention your job title, what you wear to work, what your daily tasks look like, and your typical workspace. The more context ChatGPT receives, the sharper the result. Brand-new users especially benefit from being specific, since the AI has no prior interaction history to draw from.

You don’t even need to type everything out — ChatGPT’s voice mode lets you describe your job aloud, which can be faster and more natural than crafting a text prompt.

Whether the caricature trend outlasts its predecessors remains to be seen. But for now, the internet is having a good time seeing itself through a fun-house mirror powered by AI.