Legendary animator and founder of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, has captivated audiences around the world with his whimsical storytelling that explores the human experience and celebrates the natural world.
His films take several years to make and are famously hand-drawn, with each intricate frame meticulously crafted.
Now, OpenAI's new image-generation tool allows users to render images in Mr Miyazaki's signature style in a matter of seconds.
The new tool has become immensely popular with thousands of people sharing AI-generated memes and personal portraits in Studio Ghibli's style on social media.
This trend has raised broader discussions about the ethical concerns of AI-generated art, copyright issues and the future livelihoods of animators and artists.
What is the Studio Ghibli AI trend?
OpenAI unveiled its new image-generation tool for ChatGPT last week, which allows users to transform images into different styles, including the Studio Ghibli style.
Users simply upload an image onto the platform and request it to be rendered in the style of Studio Ghibli, and within seconds, it will do so.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, took to X on Tuesday to announce that the new tool will be rolled out to all free users, enabling people to generate up to three images a day.
The demand for AI-generated Ghibli-style art caused such a surge in users that OpenAI's servers were reportedly "melting", prompting Mr Altman to implement rate limits temporarily.
Many users have taken to X to share examples of AI-generated Ghibli-style internet memes.
OpenAI has largely encouraged "Ghiblification", with Mr Altman even changing his profile picture on X into a Ghibli-style portrait.
While many users have created personal portraits and memes with the tool, some have used it to generate unsettling and violent images, including depictions of the World Trade Center towers falling on September 11 and the murder of George Floyd.
The White House's official X account also posted an AI-generated image of an ICE agent detaining a tearful Virginia Basora-Gonzalez for allegedly dealing fentanyl, sparking outrage for its insensitivity.
'An insult to life itself': Miyazaki's disdain for AI
Mr Miyazaki once called artificial intelligence in animation "utterly disgusting" and "an insult to life itself".
He even said he would "never wish to incorporate this technology into [his] work at all".
Today, nearly a decade later, the internet is awash with AI-generated images replicating his style.
Mr Miyazaki has consistently stayed true to traditional hand-drawn techniques that give Studio Ghibli its distinctive expressive animations and attention to detail.
The beloved Japanese animation production company is behind Oscar-winning movies Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron.
Why is the trend controversial?
As the trend gained momentum, Mr Miyazaki's past comments on AI animation resurfaced, sparking renewed discussions about the ethics of AI-generated art.
Deborah Szapiro, an academic specialising in design, animation and interaction, expressed concerns about OpenAI's exploitation of Mr Miyazaki's work.
"It's not replicating or mimicking it, it's stealing it," Ms Szapiro told the ABC.
"And in actual fact, none of it actually retains the soul of any artwork because what's happening with it is that it's kind of like the world's biggest photocopier, whilst it's stealing."
Ms Szapiro notes that OpenAI is exploiting Miyazaki's world, though it can never truly capture the essence of his work, as it fails to grasp the fundamental human element that is essential to art.
"They do not understand art, they understand profit, so it can't possibly capture the soul of Miyazaki's artwork," she said.
"Almost anyone under 35 in the Western world has grown up with Ghibli films and that comfort and safeness and the beauty of Miyazaki's world is being exploited in this case."
OpenAI, which is already facing copyright lawsuits over its flagship chatbot, has stated that it has implemented safeguards.
"We added a refusal which triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist," OpenAI said in a technical paper.
While Miyazaki, 84, is a living artist, OpenAI permits the replication of broader studio styles like the Ghibli style.
OpenAI defended the trend, noting that users have shared "truly delightful and inspired original fan creations".
Impact on Ghibli's brand integrity
John McGhee, a professor of 3D Visualisation within the Faculty of Arts, Design, and Architecture at UNSW, voiced concerns about the widespread, uncontrolled proliferation of Ghibli-style content on the internet.
"If it's not being curated in any way, it's not representative of the brand of the original artist who generated them," Professor McGhee told the ABC.
He argues this could harm the integrity of the brand.
He also pointed out the cultural and philosophical differences between traditional artists like Miyazaki and AI-generated content.
Miyazaki's work often addresses themes like environmentalism and human impact, while AI companies consume significant power and contribute to environmental costs.
"A lot of the content of the films that he makes have got, like, an environmental kind of component to them, and about human waste, and then in contrast to that, you've got Sam Altman tweeted that it was melting the GPUs," he said.
Copyright controversy
Professor McGhee raised an important question: Is OpenAI's model trained on Studio Ghibli's work without permission?
"The algorithm has to be trained on something … I suspect there will be legal implications because it's taking someone else's artwork, and it hasn't asked permission to do that," Professor McGhee said.
One intellectual property lawyer, who spoke to the ABC but did not want to be named in this piece, said there had not yet been a specific case that had really tested these boundaries.
They said that in the US, OpenAI could argue that it taught its AI using other people's artworks but that other influences were also included, thus transforming the original artwork — a so-called "fair use" argument.
Australia's "fair dealing" laws are more restrictive and would usually allow content to be reused in news reports, or academic or other research.
The situation could also be complicated by any agreements OpenAI might have with image libraries, or if a creator like Studio Ghibli posted content on a platform such as Facebook, which then had a license to pass the material on to someone else.
In the age of the internet, they said, it was very easy to lose control of your copyright license.
While Mr Miyazaki is yet to release a statement, it's not hard to imagine what he would make of this new trend.
