ANIME HEAT EP3: Art Without the Auteur: Studio Ghibli-style AI Images Spark Controversy
- DIG 4552
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
By Alessandra Henriquez
The launch of OpenAI’s new image generation tool has sparked a wave of Studio Ghibli-inspired visuals all over social media. Fans and curious netizens flocked to ChatGPT last week to transform memes and personal portraits into stills resembling the studio’s well-known animations. Despite boasting a wide popularity, the trend raises ethical concerns about content ownership, privacy, and the livelihood of human artists in the age of artificial intelligence.
OpenAI’s image generator allows users to upload any photo and request to render a copy in their chosen art style within seconds. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the tool would be available to all free users, enabling them to create up to three images per day. While some experimented with the look of shows like “Rick and Morty” and “South Park”, the famous Studio Ghibli animation style proved most popular. The demand for the program was so high the OpenAI GPUs were reportedly “melting”, as Altman later posted.
The use of AI image generators, however, completely goes against the creative philosophy of Studio Ghibli and its co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. Ghibli films such as “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” are known for being meticulously crafted over the course of several years, with hand-drawn animations that inject emotional weight into their fantastical settings. To have an AI reproduce in moments what artists and animators spend their lives to perfect is, in the words of Miyazaki, “utterly disgusting” and “an insult to life itself.” He most notably voiced his opposition to AI in the 2016 documentary “Never Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki”, where he also stated he would "never wish to incorporate this technology into [his] work at all.” Now, nearly a decade later, AI replicates Miyazaki’s style without the fundamental human element: the soul of its auteur.
Many artists and commentators expressed their disappointment in the trend and felt it was disrespectful to both the animation studio and Miyazaki as a creative. This includes industry leaders such as legendary “One Piece” director Megumi Ishitani, who recently posted on X, “You've tarnished Ghibli... I'll never forgive you…”
There was also discussion about the legality of how OpenAI trained its AI to mimic art styles. While it is not known if the company took individual stills from Ghibli movies or Miyazaki’s personal work to feed its AI, it is unlikely they received consent to use the content for generative purposes. According to an article from The Associated Press, OpenAI has not answered about whether they had a license to train its AI. However, the company is already facing lawsuits from other artists for copyright infringement. This includes illustrator and concept artist Karla Ortiz, who said the Ghibli trend “[uses] Ghibli’s branding, their name, their work, their reputation, to promote [OpenAI] products,” which is “another clear example of how companies like OpenAI just do not care about the work of artists and the livelihoods of artists.”
`In addition to intellectual property concerns, the AI Ghibli-style images also caused worry over the type of content being generated, especially coming from select accounts. Although most users were average citizens making internet memes or stylized portraits, government institutions took advantage of the trend as well to post politically-charged imagery. After an announcement on X detailing the arrest of Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, who had previously been deported on account of fentanyl trafficking charges, the White House quote-tweeted their post with a Ghibli-esque AI-generated image of an ICE agent detaining a tearful Basora-Gonzalez. The comments were filled with outrage over the insensitivity of the photo. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also posted their own stylized images depicting a peaceful rendition of their military campaign in Gaza, with many putting them under fire for false representation and using the art of Miyazaki, who is a vocal critic of war, to promote their agenda.
The political implications of these posts was not the only concern, however. As thousands of people voluntarily uploaded family photos and portraits to social media, showing the before and after of their “Ghiblification”, some expressed unease about the potential effect on personal privacy. Proton, a digital security firm, explained on X how the AI image trend essentially gives OpenAI a fresh set of original images to legally use as material to train their models. This could have harmful ramifications in the form of misleading or harassing content, either through future generated images or data breaches bringing the original photos into dangerous hands.
Thus, while the Ghibli image trend may leave as quickly as it arrived, it highlights larger issues in the rise of artificial intelligence and its function in creative industries. As AI continues to produce art and generative imagery at superhuman rates, the future of individual privacy and artistic intellectual property remains dubious.
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