Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by artists: ‘I can’t think of a worse artist to do it to’

If you’re on social media you’ve probably stumbled over some quote, clip, or screen grab from one of Studio Ghibli’s movies, but with ChatGPT’s newest update introducing its most refined image generation yet, you’re now just as likely to find an AI facsimile with a startling resemblance to the real thing. Possibly based on someone’s vacation photos.

The trend is hitting social media like a hurricane and has attracted the attention of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who changed his X profile image to a Ghibli-inspired self-portrait. But it’s not just him: America’s very own verified White House X account posted an image in the same style, showing a US soldier putting handcuffs on a woman in tears, referencing a real event in Philadelphia last week.

If you had any concerns about generative AI’s implications in regard to ethics, artist rights, or copyright, that conversation is hitting a fever pitch all over the internet. That this latest generative AI fad mimics the work of someone as beloved as Hayao Miyazaki has made it particularly obscene to critics.

As filmmaker Robbie Shilstone said in a thread on X: “Miyazaki spent his entire life building one of the most expansive and imaginative bodies of work, all so you could rip it off and use it as a filter for your vacation photos … I can’t think of a worse artist to do it to as well. He is notorious for his attention to detail, his painstaking revisions, his uncompromising dedication to his craft.”

User slimjosa concurred, saying in a quote repost of an AI-generated Ghibli image: “The whole Studio Ghibli AI trend honestly gives me second-hand embarrassment knowing how hard Hayao Miyazaki has fought to retain the identity of his films and how many of you are this willing to make a farce out of decades of artistry because you don’t actually value it”. That post has racked up nearly 50,000 likes.

Also worth noting is generative AI’s carbon footprint, as it relies on energy-guzzling data centers to function. While OpenAI doesn’t disclose specific data regarding its emissions, a report from Goldman Sachs last year noted “a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search.”

It’s hard not to think of a notorious Miyazaki clip where he calls a procedural animation technique “an insult to life itself,” adding that “anyone who creates this stuff has no idea what pain is”.

While he wasn’t talking about generative AI as we understand it now, the crew demonstrating their technology to him said their goal was to “build a machine that can draw pictures like humans do.” It hardly feels like a stretch to make the connection between that attitude and this technology.