Getting “roasted” online is a tried and true trend that sees your photos or social media profiles burned with a clever insult or three. It’s often itself caused by requests from thick-skinned fans asking for particularly talented roasters to target them. Now, there’s a new roaster on the scene, flaming hundreds of thousands of Instagram users: ChatGPT. The “Ask ChatGPT to roast your feed in one paragraph” trend is exactly what it says on the tin. People ask the AI chatbot to look at their Instagram page and mock them in often very specific and vicious ways.
Taking part is easy enough. You’ll need an Instagram page and the ChatGPT app. For some reason, it doesn’t work on the web portal. Take a screenshot of your Instagram page and submit it to ChatGPT with the prompt: “Roast my Instagram feed in one paragraph.” Then try not to cry too much. As an example, the screenshot below from Ny Breaking Instagram led to the following roast from ChatGPT:
“Your Instagram feed looks like it was curated by a tech reviewer who’s been stuck at a gadget expo for too long, complete with enough smartphone close-ups to make your screen crack with boredom. From AI tricks on the latest Galaxy to what feels like the 1,000th photo taken by a Google Pixel, it’s like an endless loop of “Look what I had in my hand today!” Even your “what to watch this weekend” posts seem to just take a break between unboxings. If “one more shiny new thing” were a feed, this would be it.”
AI trendsetter
It’s the kind of simple, easy trend that gets shared a lot on Instagram Stories, so it’s easy to see why it became so popular. And while it might not be the first time that AI tools have powered social media trends and fads, it stands out because it involves text. Typically, AI-powered trends rely on image filters or generated photos of users in different environments or with a shared look or style. The ChatGPT roasting challenge relies entirely on the chatbot’s ability to analyze images and come up with humorous ways to poke fun at them. It’s also a remarkable feat of toeing the line between where it can be funny without (as far as we know) crossing the line into wildly inappropriate commentary. The guardrails put in place by OpenAI appear to be working in this case.
As for the (non-AI) creator of the trend, he remains anonymous. It appears to have started with a German account dedicated to books, but the creator has not revealed who is behind the account. While it may not seem like a big deal, this trend could represent a major shift in the way we interact with AI and online content in general. Not everyone may agree with it, not even ChatGPT. When asked to roast the idea of the trend, the AI responded with:
“Asking ChatGPT to roast an Instagram account is like hiring a robot to critique your fashion choices: it’s entertaining, sure, but also a little desperate. It’s the digital equivalent of fishing for a “barbaric” comment from the least barbaric entity available. Let’s be realistic: you’re essentially asking a code-based algorithm to take a break from your personal Google and instead pretend it’s your snarky friend who’s had one too many drinks. The whole exercise feels like trying to get Alexa to swear: it’s funnier in theory than in execution, and you’re probably only doing it to avoid the sting of an actual human roast.”