Fun things to do with AI: fix a photo, a bedtime story, names

None of them needs anything beyond the free version of the app.

1. Fix a photo: remove the stranger, brighten the room

Upload the photo to ChatGPT or Gemini and say what to change, one thing at a time, in the words you would use to a friend. It edits the picture and gives it back. Faces stay as they are if you tell it so.

Upload the photo

Tap the plus, choose the picture. The same box that draws also edits.

Paste this, and change the bracket

Edit this photo. Change only this: [remove the person in the background on the left /
brighten the room, it is too dark / take the bin out of the corner / straighten the
horizon]. Keep everything else exactly as it is, especially people's faces and bodies.
Do not change the colours of anything you were not asked to change. Give me the edited
photo at the same size.

One change per go

Remove the stranger. Look. Then brighten. Look. Each one is a separate ask, and each one is reversible because you still have the previous version. Asking for four changes at once is how a face drifts; the one-task habit applies to pictures too.

How you know it worked. The thing you asked about is gone or fixed, and everyone still looks like themselves. If a face has changed, say “the faces changed, put them back exactly”. If it refuses to edit a real person at all, that is a safety rule in some apps; crop them out yourself and ask again.

2. A bedtime story with your child in it, every night

Say the child’s name, one thing from today, one thing they love and one made-up thing. Get a two-minute story. Different every night, two minutes to make, and the good ones can become a printed book.

Collect four things at bedtime

Their name. Something from today, however small. A thing they love right now. A made-up thing: a dragon, a talking bus, a door in the garden. Ask them for the last one; they are better at it than you.

Paste this, or say it out loud

Tell a bedtime story for a [age]-year-old called [name]. Today [one thing that happened].
They love [a thing]. Somewhere in the story there is [the made-up thing]. About 300 words,
calm by the end, gentle, no scary parts, and the last line should make it easy to fall
asleep. Do not add a moral.

Voice mode will read it. “Make the dragon shy” or “shorter” works mid-story.

Keep the ones they ask for again

Some stories get requested twice. Paste those into one chat and, when you have ten, ask for each one illustrated one page at a time; it can make pictures covers that. Lay them out in Canva or a photo-book service. That is a book with their name on it, and it cost you ten bedtimes.

Maya, 5, fed the ducks today, loves trains, a shy dragon, plus the prompt above

Maya and the Shy Dragon

Today Maya fed the ducks at the pond. On the way home she heard a small puff from behind the station wall.

It was a dragon, no bigger than a goat, hiding behind the ticket machine. “I’m too shy to ride the train,” he whispered.

Maya held out her hand. “I’ll sit next to you,” she said.

…

The train rocked gently. The dragon yawned, and Maya yawned, and the train rolled home through the dark, slow and warm.

Keep surnames, school and address out of it; a first name and a dog is all the story needs.

3. Ten names for your club, stall, app or dog

Say what the thing is, who it is for and how it should feel. Ask for ten names across five styles, two each. Pick, then spend five minutes checking it is not already someone else’s.

Say the three things only you know

What it is, who it is for, how it should feel. “A Saturday running group for beginners in Lisbon, friendly, not sporty.” That is enough. Leave the rest open; the gaps are where the good names are, the same way three options beats one.

Paste this

I need a name. The thing: [what it is]. For: [who]. It should feel: [two or three words].

Give me ten names, two in each of these styles: plain and descriptive; playful; two
ordinary words put together; a made-up word that sounds right; something from the place
or the people. One line each on why it works. No puns unless the feel is playful. Do not
rank them.

Pick, then check

Choose the one that makes you say “that one”. Then search it with your town or field, check the social handle and the web address, and for a business check the company and trademark registers. That is five minutes and it is not optional; the AI does not know what is taken.

A Saturday beginners running group in Lisbon, plus the prompt above

Plain and descriptive

1. Lisbon Beginners Run: says exactly what it is.
2. Saturday Starters: easy to remember, friendly.

Playful 3. Slow Coaches: a joke that welcomes newcomers.

Two ordinary words 4. Hill Tortoise: slow, steady and a little local. …

Search your favourite names before falling for one. The AI does not know what is taken.

If none feel right, tell it which one you liked best and ask for ten more like it.

If you want a logo next, it can make pictures is the page, and Canva puts it on things.