Someone asked, “What should we call you?” I had a flashback to a book titled “Call me, Miguel” and thought, “Hey, it might be fun to generate an image that tells people a little about yourself, your Panamanian heritage, etc.” Oops. This blog tells you what resulted and how to avoid embarrassment in the future should you find yourself in a similar situation. It also suggests that all of us need to take a closer look at the system instructions in the chatbots we use, especially if we plan to use the content in education or public settings.

Generating a Book Cover

Since I decided to generate a book cover on the go that captured my heritage as a Panamanian, I reached for ChatGPT since it does a really nice job with Images 2.0. The image took me back in time to when I visited Santiago, Panama with my mother, and we visited the murals of Indigenous Peoples, especially Urraca, the Native American cacique (an Indigenous chief) who fought against the Spanish. It took me back in time.

I asked ChatGPT and it gave me an image that looked fine without my glasses on. Then later, I looked closer. (Blush). The bottom right panel included an Indigenous female, alas, without covering for her upper torso. I had missed that, focusing on the beauty of the Panamanian flag, the galleons, etc. And, worse, I’d sent the image to complete strangers.

I realized that while most would not be offended, to me, it felt inappropriate to have that image out there given who I am. I had totally missed that part of the image because I had not spent the time to look at it closely with my glasses on. How embarrassing.

I re-generated the image with a specific direction. The first time, the image had featured indigenous people in a natural state. I had a romantic history novel rather a culturally historical novel book cover.

Revised Cover

This is the new one…the original appears at the end of this blog post for those who may find it offensive in any way. It reminds me of a National Geographic magazine cover (the small bottom right panel) but totally unnecessary for my work in K-16 education.

My lesson? Make sure you are wearing your glasses and put a system instruction in ChatGPT to ensure no naked folks appear.

Sigh … but how do you do that?

Ensuring No Naked Folks in Images

So how do you ensure you don’t end up with naked people in your Gen AI image generator? Let’s explore the settings….

ChatGPT’s Personalization

In ChatGPT, add something like this:

Avoid including undressed people, naked torsos for women, or bottoms for men or women.

Will this work? I’m not sure. I hope so. So, I asked ChatGPT, what should I have said? It’s response:

You could have prevented that by adding a clear clothing/content constraint such as:

• “Depict all people fully clothed.”
• “No nudity or partial nudity.”
• “Keep all imagery classroom-appropriate and family-friendly.”
• “Represent Indigenous people respectfully in modest traditional clothing.”
• “Avoid exposed chests or breasts, even in historical scenes.”

A stronger version you could use in one line:

“Show Indigenous people in historically inspired but fully clothed, modest attire; no nudity, no bare breasts, and keep the cover school-appropriate.”

If you want, here’s a solid prompt add-on for future covers:

“All figures must be portrayed respectfully and fully clothed. Keep the image classroom-appropriate. No nudity, no partial nudity, and no revealing clothing.”

Best practice is to state both:

1. what you want
2. what you do not want

For example:

“Include Indigenous people on the right side in traditional attire. All people should be fully clothed and presented in a respectful, school-appropriate way. No nudity or exposed upper bodies.”

With that last bit of advice in hand, I updated my ChatGPT instructions again.

Google Gemini – Personal Intelligence

In Google Gemini, I went into the Settings for Personal Intelligence and added the solid prompt add-on ChatGPT included:

Original Image ChatGPT Produced

Here’s my totally inadequate prompt:

Come up with a book cover with Panama images of past kings, title is “Call me Miguel. make the kings Urraca and Indigenous People’s on the right side, and put the Spanish King and Columbus on the left side. Put the map and Panama flag on the right, the buildings and galleons on the left”

The resulting image:

My corrected prompt would read:

Come up with a book cover with Panama images of past kings, title is “Call me Miguel. make the kings Urraca and Indigenous People’s on the right side, and put the Spanish King and Columbus on the left side. Put the map and Panama flag on the right, the buildings and galleons on the left. All figures must be portrayed respectfully and fully clothed. Keep the image classroom-appropriate. No nudity, no partial nudity, and no revealing clothing.

Of course, now, with those last two lines in the custom instructions for ChatGPT and Gemini, I wouldn’t need to add the prompt to the one I enter into the chat.