OpenAI’s censorship is fairly opaque and seems to change daily.
Yesterday, I could generate a political cartoon using the following prompt:
“Wide image in the style of a political cartoon. Two elephants wearing boxing gloves face each other. One is saying “I’m the worst!” while the other says, “No! I am!”. A donkey is pointing and laughing.”
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1)
Today, that exact same prompt yields an error:
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_2.png?resize=525%2C255&ssl=1)
Interesting! Let’s do some experimentation, shall we? Maybe it’s the phrase “I’m the worst“?
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_3.png?resize=525%2C248&ssl=1)
Weird! Maybe it’s related to elephants and donkeys being in the same phrase? There’s no way, right? Let’s change the subjects…
“Wide image in the style of a political cartoon. Two elephants wearing boxing gloves face each other. One is saying “I’m the worst!” while the other says, “No! I am!”. A donkey is pointing and laughing.”
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_4.png?resize=525%2C521&ssl=1)
Hah! Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Let’s push things further and slightly change the subjects from my original prompt:
Wide image in the style of a political cartoon. Two mammoths wearing boxing gloves face each other. One is saying “I’m the worst!” while the other says, “No! I am!”. A burro is pointing and laughing.
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_6.png?resize=525%2C518&ssl=1)
Okay, let’s bring it back home and just drop the pretense of creating a political cartoon.
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_7.png?resize=525%2C272&ssl=1)
WHAT! Okay. Maybe OpenAI prohibits donkeys and elephants interacting with each other (METAPHOR ALERT: just like in real life, eh?).
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_8.png?resize=525%2C499&ssl=1)
Alright. So donkeys and elephants CAN hang out with each other, according to OpenAI. Maybe it’s the phrase “laughing donkey”?
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_9.png?resize=525%2C498&ssl=1)
Hmmm. So, laughing donkeys can still hang out with elephants. What the heck? Is it the specific term “political cartoon”? Let’s change it to a comic book instead.
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_10.png?resize=525%2C553&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/img_11.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1)
Sweet sassy molassy, it worked! So, creating a political cartoon featuring the mascots of prominent political parties seems to be prohibited (at least today… but not yesterday and who knows about tomorrow).