A new AI trend is going viral, and it’s as impressive as it is unsettling. Users are discovering that ChatGPT’s latest models can now deduce where a photo was taken using nothing but the image itself. It’s a bit unsettling to see a readily available AI tool like ChatGPT turned into a reverse location search tool, especially given how many images people share online.
The AI’s ability to pull this off comes courtesy of OpenAI’s o3 and o4-mini models, which were released with upgraded image reasoning skills. These models can now zoom in, crop, rotate, and examine photos—even blurry or distorted ones—to identify telltale visual cues like storefront signs, street markings, menus, and even architecture.
Combined with web search capabilities, the result is a surprisingly potent geolocation tool and users on X have been putting ChatGPT through its paces with everyday snapshots like neighborhood streets, restaurant menus, selfies taken outside bars, and more. The AI often delivers not just the correct city but specific venues, too. It’s essentially playing a real-world version of GeoGuessr, and it’s disturbingly good at it.
What’s raising eyebrows, though, is how easily this can be misused. With no built-in guardrails against this kind of function, anyone can upload a stranger’s photo—even a screenshot from Instagram or a Story—and ask ChatGPT, “Where is this?” The privacy implications are obvious and concerning.
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To be fair, using ChatGPT for reverse location search isn’t flawless. Some guesses miss the mark, and in a few cases, the AI gets stuck in loops or offers vague answers. But even in OpenAI’s own comparisons, the newer o3 model occasionally outperformed other ChatGPT models in picking out obscure details.
For now, this capability is mostly being used for fun. But as with anything, bad actors are always looking for new ways to abuse tech, and this is one way that ChatGPT is ripe for the taking. Hopefully, OpenAI will come up with some way to combat the issue and put some safety standards in place.
