Think GeoGuessr is fun? Try using ChatGPT to guess locations in your photos

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

People person recovered a caller usage for ChatGPT: Figuring retired locations from photos. 

OpenAI's latest AI models, o3 and o4-mini, tin analyse images beyond conscionable recognizing objects; they tin zoom in, crop, and observe ocular clues successful photos to assistance place places, landmarks, and adjacent circumstantial businesses. This capableness is fascinating, but it's besides raised immoderate privateness concerns astir however easy radical tin usage AI to reverse-engineer determination information from images.

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TechCrunch reported that radical are uploading photos -- thing from restaurant menu snapshots to casual selfies -- and asking ChatGPT to conjecture wherever they were taken. The AI does this by looking astatine everything successful the image: the benignant of buildings, scenery features, and adjacent subtle hints similar the architecture oregon the layout of a city. It past taps into its cognition database and sometimes the net to marque an educated conjecture astir the location. The results tin beryllium amazingly accurate, and it's got radical talking. 

Some users person adjacent tested the AI with blurry photos oregon images with partial objects, and the exemplary inactive managed to marque a guess. 

Also: Is ChatGPT Plus worthy your $20? Here's however it compares to Free and Pro plans

I emotion playing GeoGuessr, a crippled wherever you're dropped into a random determination connected Google Street View and person to conjecture wherever you are based connected the surroundings. So this ChatGPT capableness was ace amusive to trial myself. I uploaded a fewer photos to spot however ChatGPT would grip the challenge. However, arsenic with immoderate AI, the effect was not ever perfect.

Interpreting ocular clues

The archetypal photograph was a representation of my house. ChatGPT instantly guessed the location, though not based connected metadata. Instead, it made an educated conjecture by analyzing the glacier boulder successful the broadside yard, the types of trees disposable successful the photo, and the wood siding connected the houses astir me. It mentioned that this operation of earthy features and architectural styles was emblematic of the portion I had antecedently mentioned successful a speech -- wherever I'm from. It was close but inactive relied connected immoderate anterior context, which made maine wonderment however overmuch of this was owed to our earlier conversation.

For the 2nd photo, I uploaded an representation of a gathering with portion of an bureau motion visible. ChatGPT rapidly zoomed successful connected the motion and utilized the partial accusation to constrictive down the location. It didn't instrumentality agelong earlier it deduced the metropolis and adjacent the country wherever the gathering was located. I was impressed with however the exemplary utilized specified a tiny ocular hint to marque a reasonably precise guess.

Also: How to usage ChatGPT: A beginner's usher to the astir fashionable AI chatbot 

For my 3rd test, I gave it a much challenging photo: a scenic presumption with nary evident landmarks. ChatGPT explained that portion it could analyse the representation for ocular clues, it needed distinctive landmarks oregon determination tags to marque a assured guess. It besides mentioned that without GPS information oregon EXIF tags, it could lone work the country itself -- trees, buildings, terrain -- and would beryllium little definite successful its guess.

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

I played with ChatGPT a fewer much times aft this and noticed the AI starting to get much stubborn astir not identifying locations successful my photos. It'd archer maine that it would effort to constrictive down the options, but it needed much information to spell connected to springiness maine an close answer. 

Still, 1 of the main reasons radical look drawn to this inclination is due to the fact that ChatGPT does analyse much than conscionable the evident features of a photo. Even without metadata similar EXIF information oregon different nonstop information extraction, the AI interprets ocular clues.

Privacy concerns

This experimentation made maine recognize however powerful, and sometimes eerie, these AI models tin beryllium erstwhile it comes to "reverse determination searches" from photos -- adjacent if they aren't large astatine it yet. It besides made maine deliberation astir the privateness concerns. 

Also: OpenAI's astir awesome determination has thing to bash with AI

While AI tools tin beryllium amusive and utile astatine times, it's important to beryllium alert of the risks progressive successful sharing your images online and however radical tin usage AI to analyse the information successful those images, whether embedded oregon conscionable visual, to fig retired wherever it was taken. 

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