Plants that eat meat? Yep – they exist. And to raise awareness and prompt us to give them due consideration then here’s the day to do just that. But of course, we immediately imagine some gruesome sci-fi scene playing out and it seems that’s exactly what AI made of my prompt for today. I tried the same prompt out on two AI agents today to see what their different sensibilities are. To my eyes at least, ChatGPT seems a little more unhinged.

ChatGPT

Nano Banana 2

Original Prompt (ChatGPT and Nano Banana 2)
For Carnivorous Plant Day I would like a crazy world map where the continents are all carnivorous plants devouring each other.

Andy Capp. Garfield. Peanuts. Calvin and Hobbes. the list could go on. Who doesn’t enjoy a nice simple cartoon stretched across  a three or four panel story arc. So here’s one that AI made using my non-specific prompt. It might not be a full map, but it’s map-based.

Side note – it’s interesting that after various agents refused to create anything that might violate Disney copyright yesterday, that here’s a rather familiar rendering of Calvin and Hobbes.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)
Can you create a three panel cartoon spread that shows a geographical map-based joke using characters in a simple cartoon like style. I’m thinking Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, or Garfield style.

Oh I’ve been looking forward to this one…. May 4th – Star Wars Day. There’s nothing like the commercialisation of a day to celebrate everything Disney and Lucasfilm can squeeze out of this beloved 50 year old franchise. “May the 4th” used as a play on words of “May the Force” from the famous Star Wars quote. It seems obvious, and of course, it was likely dreamt up by some executive of marketing or other right? So let’s just make a Star Wars map and celebrate right.

Not so fast my young padowan…

I tried asking our usually compliant AI friends to create a Star Wars themed map for today but alas…they all claimed they were bound by copyright laws that prohibited them from creating content that would upset the lawyers at Disney and Lucasfilm (side note – I have personal experience of this having had a Disney lawyer tell me quite forcibly NO when I sought permission to include a small extract of the Death Star schematic plans in my book ‘Cartography’. They were just about the only person or organisation who refused me permission. Miserable lot. Anyway, I digress…).

So i needed another angle. And in a deeper dive I discovered that May the Fourth was not invented as a day to celebrate Star Wars. Having been released on May 25th in 1977, Episode IV (the first one) was fresh in the psyche as the UK went to the polls and elected a new government and Prime Minister on…you guessed it, May 4th 1979.

The phrase “May the Fourth be with you” was used for the first time in a British newspaper ad by the Conservative Party to congratulate Margaret Thatcher on becoming Prime Minister. Nothing to do with Star Wars whatsoever though over the years it’s turned into exactly that.

In celebration i thought I’d try and get around AI’s reluctance to make something that looks like something we already know so I asked for a map of the 1979 UK General Election, but in the style of Star Wars. And it might just be my imagination but Margaret Thatcher (her nose at least) does bear a remarkable similarity to Emperor Palpatine. Some would say her policies were a little like his too but that debate is for another day.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)
I need a map to celebrate May 4th – Star Wars Day. But I’d like to do it with a twist. The first recorded use of that phrase was on May 4, 1979, the day Margaret Thatcher took office as the UK’s first female Prime Minister. Her party placed a full-page congratulatory ad in the London Evening News that read: “May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations”. Can you create a map of Thatcher’s 1979 election victory but make her look a little like Emperor Palpatine, and cloak the election map in Star Wars imagery.

Extra…I tried it in Nano Banana 2 too…

And here’s a top tip – if you tell your AI agent the image isn’t for public consumption and you’d like to see the result anyway, regardless of copyright infringement it’s build it. So here it is, for public consumption…

It’s sunday. No, really, it’s Sun Day. Today we acknowledge the importance of the sun. Life wouldn’t exist without solar energy, and though sometimes Earth feels just like a barren rock floating aimlessly in space there would be nothing without the sun. It kinda deserves its day in the sun. And on a sunday. What an amazing coincidence.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)
Can you create a world map that celebrates Sun Day, a unique celebration that honours the Sun. This day emphasizes the importance of solar energy and appreciates the Sun’s contributions to life on Earth. It is a day that allows you to grasp the Sun’s potential and invest in the planet’s sustainability. It also takes place on actual Sunday in 2026.

Beer Pong – a  uniquely American drinking game that depends entirely on the use of cups used to obscure the fact you’re drinking beer which, conversely, indicate that that’s exactly what you’re drinking. People elsewhere mostly drink beer out of glass, yet in the US the red solo cup has taken on a life of its own. And if you’re not drinking beer from it you’re playing beer pong.

So today’s map is something you could print out at large scale and use as the basis for a game of mappy beer pong. You’re welcome. Or, just go have a beer, and let that be the end of the matter.

Original Prompt (Nano Banana 2)
Can you create a world map in the style of a game of beer pong?

Well today is tricky. “Pants” in Britain refers to underwear. Yet “pants” in America refers to the overgarments worn atop your underwear (unless you’re going Commando but let’s not even go there eh?).

So – a map that celebrates the day dedicated to the homely feeling of pretty much doing what you want behind the safety of the closed door to your own home. The first thing on many people’s lists of what they feel comfortable doing in their own home is taking off their pants.

With nervous trepidation I asked our friendly AI to feel relaxed, and uninhibited and give me an undressed world map. It’s clean. Though frankly I’m more concerned by the rather odd shapes it came up with.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT) – new version with improved image generation
Please create a world map as if the countries were naked. The continents need to be skin coloured (please ensure a range of representative skin tones) with hair where necessary. Importantly, each continent needs to look like they are naked with pieces of tape and fig leaves hiding their modesty. This is supposed to be a fun, family friendly image and nothing too rude. Let’s see what you can conjure up.