ChatGPT’s AI Doll Challenge: The Backlash Is Beginning

If your Instagram feed has turned into a surreal toy shop lately, you’re not imagining things. The internet’s latest obsession? Turning yourself into a pocket-sized, plastic-clad action figure using AI.

Dubbed the AI Doll Trend, this viral moment involves uploading a selfie and a list of eerily specific prompts to generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Copilot. Want to be boxed like a Barbie wearing a power suit, holding a matcha, and surrounded by books? There’s a prompt for that. The AI spits out a shiny image of you, trapped in a box, looking somewhere between fab and freakish.

An example of a ChatGBT AI doll. Image @melissa_fakler via IG

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It’s not just regular people jumping in—brands like Mario Badescu and even Royal Mail are rolling out their own digital dolls.

But behind the dopamine rush of instant mini-me gratification lies a darker, less Instagrammable truth: AI image generation is an energy-hungry beast.

“ChatGPT is burning through energy,” warns Professor Gina Neff of Queen Mary University London, speaking to The BBC. According to the report, the data centres used to power it consume more electricity in a year than 117 countries. Let that sink in.

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Lance Ulanoff, US editor at TechRadar, puts it bluntly: “We have a joke in my house that every time we create one of these AI memes, it kills a tree… That’s hyperbole, of course, but it’s safe to say that AI content generation is not without costs, and perhaps we should be thinking about it and using it differently.”

A recent report by the International Energy Agency backs this up. It found that data centres—largely driven by AI demand—could guzzle 945 terawatt hours of electricity annually by 2030, more than three times the UK’s current use. Training one major AI model (like GPT-4) reportedly used enough electricity to power 28,500 homes for a day. And we’re using that energy… for dolls.

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Beyond the carbon footprint, there are worries about privacy and ethics. “ChatGPT Barbie represents a triple threat to our privacy, our culture and our planet,” says Professor Neff. “These systems are putting brands and characters into a blender with no responsibility for the slop that emerges.”

So, while the AI doll trend may look fun and harmless, it’s also a powerful reminder that AI isn’t free—at least not in energy terms. As Jo Bromilow of MSL UK points out: “Is a cute, funny result really worth it?”

You be the judge. Just maybe close that AI tab before it melts another glacier.