ChatGPT's New GIF Generator Is Fun, but Won't Replace Us Humans (Yet)

When it comes to generating AI images, both Gemini and ChatGPT do a passable job. In most cases, the results will look AI-generated, but they likely won’t have glaring spelling issues or missing limbs. Now, OpenAI is trying something new, introducing GIF support for ChatGPT. It's the company's first "moving images" feature since OpenAI shut down Sora, and while you can generate hyper-realistic videos in Gemini, this new ChatGPT feature is trying to fill in the gap, in a small way.

How to make animated GIFs using ChatGPT

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

OpenAI is pitching the new feature as an animation tool, not exactly as a way to create looping videos—though that’s how I ended up using it. You give ChatGPT a prompt, as detailed as you can make it, and the chatbot produces a GIF in just a few seconds. You can start with your own drawings or images, too. ChatGPT uses sketches as the base for animations, though it can turn any still image into animated GIFs. Like other AI editing tools, you can edit it if ChatGPT didn't quite get it right: You can ask ChatGPT to make the GIF longer or shorter, remove certain objects, change the style, slow down transitions, among other edits.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

AI art can be quite sterile, but I was surprised by how adding motion and animation to the mix makes generating images a lot more fun. Unlike traditional GIFs, which usually pull from existing video clips, you can turn anything you want into a GIF, which is especially cool if you're using your own art. In my testing, I found this to be the most rewarding part. It’s not always possible to one-shot a GIF with a single prompt. But after a few rounds of edits, I ended up creating some GIFs that I actually wanted to share in my WhatsApp groups.

ChatGPT can’t beat regular GIFs

That being said, I think human-made GIFs are still the gold standard here. For example, I asked ChatGPT to generate a video of someone brewing a pour-over, with a gooseneck kettle, showing the coffee blooming process. It did okay, but it’s nothing like actually making a pour-over. The kettle doesn’t move in circles, the water doesn’t rise evenly, there are no bubbles, and the steam is all over the place.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Compare that to the GIF below, which comes from a royalty-free video. Even though it’s a compressed, low-quality, and noisy GIF, it still shows the movement of the pour, the water rising, and even the bubbles. The details captured by a real video just aren’t there in ChatGPT GIFs. If that’s what you’re expecting, you will be disappointed. But I don't think that's the point of this feature anyway.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

I found that ChatGPT excels when you’re making something fun, and you don’t look into the details too much. It pulled off a loop of a cat playing with a ball, and it was great at making a festive GIF for Diwali. It even made a GIF based on a photo. I asked it to create a fun promotional GIF for my JBL Bluetooth speakers, and it did the job quite well. At first, the transitions were too jarring, and the movement just made no sense. After some editing, though, I got it to a decent place.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Still, the main issue with ChatGPT GIFs is that complex movement and transitions aren’t nailed down. A hand shifts position weirdly between frames, and colors and objects appear out of nowhere. But if you can get over these issues, you can make some fun, lighthearted GIFs and memes to share with your friends on Instagram or WhatsApp.