Recently, a trend has emerged worldwide where individuals create caricatures of themselves using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT. Users upload their images and request the AI to produce a cartoonish version based on what it knows about them from their interactions. This trend has sparked criticism regarding various issues such as privacy, intellectual property rights, and environmental concerns, highlighting the complexities surrounding AI-generated content.

Critics argue that many participants in this trend do not realize they are relinquishing valuable personal data for free to US-based tech companies, which puts their privacy at risk. Additionally, professional caricature artists have expressed discontent as AI systems can generate illustrations by pulling from the existing works of these artists. This practice raises significant questions about the ethics of using AI for creative tasks and the potential consequences for the creative industry.

From an environmental perspective, although generating AI content may seem trivial, it can have substantial carbon footprints. For instance, a single five-second AI-generated video can produce significant emissions. The growing usage of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which has surpassed 800 million weekly users by late 2025, illustrates the increasing demand for AI-generated content. With the platform handling nearly a billion queries every day, the sustainability of such practices is under scrutiny and necessitates further examination of their environmental impacts and ethical implications in the broader context of AI technology.