placed the chat_input and chabot outside the gr.Blocks()

app.py

@@ -189,12 +189,12 @@ def bot_comms(message, history):
                     buffer += text
                 yield "".join(gpt_outputs)
 
+chatbot = gr.Chatbot(height=600, label="Chimera AI")
+chat_input = gr.MultimodalTextbox(interactive=True, file_types=["images"], placeholder="Enter your question or upload an image.", show_label=False)
 
 with gr.Blocks(fill_height=True) as demo:
     gr.Markdown(DESCRIPTION)
     
-    chatbot = gr.Chatbot(height=600, label="Chimera AI")
-    chat_input = gr.MultimodalTextbox(interactive=True, file_types=["images"], placeholder="Enter your question or upload an image.", show_label=False)
     # image_output = gr.Image(type="pil", label="Generated Image")
     
     # def process_response(message, history):