Fans of Studio Ghibli, the iconic Japanese animation studio renowned for its masterpiece "Spirited Away" and other cherished films, were thrilled this week as a revamped version of ChatGPT empowered them to transform beloved internet memes or personal snapshots into the unmistakable style of Hayao Miyazaki, the studio's visionary founder. However, this burgeoning trend also cast a spotlight on ethical dilemmas surrounding AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works, raising questions about the future prospects of human artists.
At 84, Miyazaki, celebrated for his meticulous hand-drawn approach and whimsical storytelling, has harbored skepticism about AI's role in animation. On Wednesday, Janu Lingeswaran, with little contemplation of these ethical implications, uploaded a photo of his 3-year-old ragdoll cat, Mali, into ChatGPT's latest image generator tool. He then instructed ChatGPT to transform it into the Ghibli style, instantaneously creating an anime image that bore Mali's likeness yet also embodied the painstakingly rendered feline characters that populate Miyazaki's classics like "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service."
"I utterly fell in love with the result," exclaimed Lingeswaran, an entrepreneur residing near Aachen, Germany. "We're contemplating printing it out and hanging it on our wall as a cherished memento."
Similar results saw iconic images don the Ghibli style, such as the casual demeanor of Turkish pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec, sporting a T-shirt and casually slipping one hand into his pocket as he en route to clinching a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics. Another example was the famed "Disaster Girl" meme, featuring a 4-year-old turning to the camera with a faint smile as a blazing house stands in stark contrast behind her.
ChatGPT's creator, OpenAI, which is entangled in copyright lawsuits concerning its flagship chatbot, has largely embraced the "Ghiblification" experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile on the social media platform X to a portrait rendered in the Ghibli style. In a technical paper released on Tuesday, the company stated that the new tool would adopt a "conservative approach" in mimicking the aesthetics of individual artists. "We've incorporated a refusal mechanism that triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist," it noted. However, the company clarified in a statement that it "permits broader studio styles, inspiring people to create and share delightful and original fan art."
Studio Ghibli has yet to comment on this trend. The Japanese studio and its North American distributor didn't promptly respond to emails seeking comment on Thursday.
As users posted their Ghibli-style images on social media, Miyazaki's past remarks on AI animation began to surface once again. When Miyazaki witnessed an AI demo in 2016, he expressed his "utter disgust" at the display, according to documentary footage of the encounter. The demonstrator, showcasing an animation of a writhing body dragging itself by its head, explained that AI could "depict grotesque movements beyond human imagination," hinting at its potential use for zombie movements.
This prompted Miyazaki to recount a personal anecdote. "Every morning, not just recently, I see my friend who has a disability," Miyazaki recounted. "It's incredibly challenging for him to even attempt a high five; his stiffened arm can't reach out to my hand. Thinking of him now, I can't bear to watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever created this has no concept of pain."
He emphasized that he would "never contemplate incorporating this technology into my work." "I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself," he added.
Josh Weigensberg, a partner at the esteemed law firm Pryor Cashman, elucidated that the emergence of Ghibli-inspired AI artwork poses a fundamental question: was the AI model nurtured on the creative bedrock of Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli's masterpieces? This, in essence, "propels us into inquiring whether they possess the requisite license or permission to undertake such training," he emphasized. When prompted on Thursday regarding licensing, OpenAI remained mum.
Weigensberg further suggested that if a piece of work is duly licensed for training purposes, it might be prudent for an entity to authorize such usage. However, he cautioned that unauthorized utilization devoid of consent and compensation could spell "trouble." While he acknowledged a broad principle, viewing from a bird's-eye perspective, that "style" alone is not subject to copyright, he clarified that often what individuals perceive as "style" could encompass "distinct, recognizable, and segregable components of an artwork."
"Consider films like 'Howl's Moving Castle' or 'Spirited Away'; one could pause any frame and pinpoint particular elements. Upon scrutinizing the output of generative AI, one might discern identical or profoundly similar elements," he illustrated. "Merely dismissing the matter by asserting, 'Style isn't protectable under copyright law,' does not necessarily conclude the inquiry."
Artist Karla Ortiz, who has been enthralled by Miyazaki's films since childhood and is currently entangled in a pending lawsuit against other AI image generators for copyright infringement, branded this development as "yet another stark illustration of how companies such as OpenAI show disregard for artists' creations and livelihoods." She lambasted, "This exploits Ghibli's brand, name, work, and reputation to propel OpenAI's products. It's insulting. It's exploitative."
Ortiz's fury intensified when the Trump administration jumped onto the meme bandwagon on Thursday, utilizing the White House's official account to post a Ghibli-style depiction of a weeping woman from the Dominican Republic, recently apprehended by U.S. immigration authorities. Both the White House and OpenAI declined immediate comment on the image's origin.
"To behold Miyazaki's ingenious work being brutalized to birth something so reprehensible," Ortiz vented on social media, expressing her hope that Studio Ghibli would sue OpenAI relentlessly over this.
