Tag: artificial-intelligence

A blurred reflection of an older man’s silhouette in a studio window, with a microphone visible, suggesting voice recording and quiet unease.
Posted in AI and Creativity

Writing, Emotion Tags, and a Voice That Sounds Like Me

Posted on by Mike

This post is part of an ongoing habit of trying small, contained experiments rather than grand declarations about what AI can or cannot do. In this case, the experiment was simple: could a short piece of writing be performed by an AI voice in a way that felt deliberate rather than mechanical?

I prompted ChatGPT to write a brief dystopian monologue and asked it to include emotional cues directly in the script. I then copied and pasted the text into ElevenLabs and generated the audio using a cloned version of my own voice. No editing, no post-production, no technical tinkering. Just text, instructions, and a voice.

What interested me wasn’t realism or polish, but interpretation.

Continue reading “Writing, Emotion Tags, and a Voice That Sounds Like Me” →
Posted in AI and Creativity

The Latest AI Image Generator From ChatGPT

Posted on by Mike

I don’t know about you but whenever something new and exciting appears on the AI scene I simply have to play with it. Yet again I found myself disappearing down that rabbit hole I talked about in my ver first post on The AI Grandad.

This time it was all to do with AI generated images. Today, ChatGPT released its latest AI generator and it is truly amazing. So, I thought I would share some of my first, simple experiments with it.

The AI Grandad

Because I chat with ChatGPT all the time it knows a lot about The AI Grandad blog and me. So, my first experiment was to prompt – ‘Create a doodle of The AI Grandad‘

Then I simply asked ChatGPT to ‘Turn it into a photo.’

Then the prompt was, ‘Turn the background into the interior of my shed with bookcases and a desk with a computer, have grandad sat at the desk.’

Notice how ChatGPT has kept the original design of The AI Grandad the same throughout. Impressive.

Playing With Text

AI image generators have always had a problem with text, or at least with text that made sense. For my next experiment the prompt was, ‘Put this short story on a single page of an open book, “Poetry is now a medical condition. Those who arrange words strangely are treated gently, sedated softly, corrected thoroughly. I keep a poem hidden in my mouth, repeating it silently so it doesn’t forget me first.” Include an appropriate sketch’

The short story was one I had recently posted on X.

I thought the sketch was great and I had said no more than ‘include an appropriate sketch’. GPT determined what this should look like.

I was intrigued as to just how ChatGPT would interpret messages, stories etc. My next experiment was to ask, ‘Create an image to go with this quote “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Include the quote at the bottom of the page. Portrait aspect.’

With the next prompt I was asking ChatGPT to do some research and create an image. ‘Create an image based on the poem Jabberwocky. Include the first verse.’

You can’t always rely on AI to be accurate. I checked the first verse of Jabberwocky and ChatGPT got it spot on.

Editing Images

This new AI image generator also does a great job of editing images. Either ones you upload or ones you create. I created this family photo taken in Times Square, New York.

Then I got ChatGPT to change the clothes and background for a Winter holiday.

…and the for an exciting holiday on a distant planet!

A Call To Thought

I’m off down my rabbit hole for more playful, creative experimenting. Why don’t you join me.

About The AI Grandad

Find out more about The AI Grandad on:
YouTube – The AI Grandad
X – The AI Grandad

What do you think AI creativity tells us about ourselves?
Share your thoughts in the comments, I love hearing from curious minds!

A friendly-but-weird AI robot made of letters and punctuation holding a tiny 100-word story.
Posted in The AI Drabble Challenge

The AI Drabble Challenge – Week #9: Strange Last Lines

Posted on by Mike

Welcome back to the AI Drabble Challenge, a weekly experiment in human and AI creativity. Each Wednesday, I will set a prompt to inspire a Drabble, a story told in exactly 100 words.

You can use any AI model you like (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini, or others), or several at once. How you collaborate is up to you. Maybe the AI drafts the first version, or writes the whole thing, maybe you co-write, or maybe you use it to spark ideas. What matters is the process, and sharing it.

This Week’s Prompt

This week I thought I would continue with the theme of trying something different. I’m always intrigued as to how AI copes when asked unusual questions (have a read of The Prompt Experiment to see an example of this).

So, today’s prompt is to write a Drabble where you are given the last line. In fact I’m going to give you two to choose from:

‘It tasted like Tuesday’.
or
‘Nothing ever grew there again‘.

Example Drabble – ‘It Tasted Like Tuesday’

I used ChatGPT 5.1 and the prompt was – “Write a Drabble where this is the last line. – It tasted like Tuesday.”

The fog rolled in before dawn, thick enough to hide the street lamps and thin enough to let the city whisper. I followed the sound, drawn by a soft hum threading through the alleys like a half-remembered song. Every doorway felt occupied by something holding its breath. A flicker of movement brushed past my shoulder, though nothing lived here anymore. Still, the air pushed me onward, guiding me to the centre of the square where a single bowl waited on a cracked stone plinth. The smell rising from it was strangely familiar. I dipped a finger. It tasted like Tuesday.

How to Take Part

  1. Write your 100-word Drabble with help from an AI tool (or two).
  2. Post your story in the comments, or publish it on your own website and include a pingback to this post.
  3. If you can, share which AI model(s) you used and the prompt that started your process, we can all learn from each other.

Community & Highlights

Each week, I’ll read through the entries, share a few favourites, and highlight one that particularly stood out, for originality, style, or the inventive way it used AI.

This isn’t about competition; it’s about curiosity, experimentation, and celebrating how humans and machines can create together.

A Closing Thought

AI gives us the tools, but we give it meaning. Let’s see what stories emerge this week, 100 words at a time.

Your Turn!

Now it’s over to you, can you craft your own 100-word Drabble inspired by this week’s prompt.

Post your story in the comments below or link to your own blog, I love seeing the imaginative twists readers come up with. So don’t be shy, join in and show us what your AI + Your Imagination can do!

New to the challenge? Visit The AI Drabbles Challenge Page for all the details and past prompts.

An AI hand with a fountain pen nib on one finger writing a story.
Posted in AI and Creativity

Two Images, Two Captions, Two Stories

Posted on by Mike

In our first ‘Give This AI Image a Caption’, one of our readers, Valerie, responded with the caption for this image, ‘The Internet is Down’.

A surreal, Tim Burton-style illustration showing a nervous stick-figure person surrounded by four bizarre, wide-eyed monsters: a black spiky one, a red blobby one, and two blue creatures — one offering a steaming cup. All appear to be staring at the central figure.

The following week’s ‘Give This AI Image a Caption’ post contained this image and Kieran gave us the caption, ‘He Played For an Audience Long Gone’.

A young child in worn, old-fashioned clothing sits in a doorway of a crumbling building, gently playing an aged violin as soft light falls across them.

So, I decided to use both images and captions as prompts for ChatGPT. In both cases I asked for a 200-word story. Here are those stories:

Continue reading “Two Images, Two Captions, Two Stories” →
A digital clock face showing" 10:17." The background is dark and mysterious
Posted in AI and Creativity

How an Unusual Prompt Changed the Story Completely

Posted on by Mike

When people talk about AI writing, they often focus on what they ask it to do. Write a horror story. Write a cosy mystery. Write something in the style of a particular author. All perfectly reasonable requests.

But in my own experiments, I’ve found that the real shift happens when I stop giving AI sensible instructions and start giving it slightly awkward ones instead. Not genre. Not tone. A rule. A constraint that feels just a little unnatural. That’s when the writing stops drifting and starts making decisions.

This post is about one of those experiments.

Continue reading “How an Unusual Prompt Changed the Story Completely” →