When I first saw a ‘Ghiblified’ image on Instagram, I remember thinking, “Wow! How was this person able to draw in a style so similar to Ghibli?” However, that fascination slowly turned into distaste and annoyance when I checked the post further and found out it was generated using AI.
Many people around the world have seen an animated movie produced by Studio Ghibli. Their movies are overwhelmingly popular in the West, and rightfully so. The eye-catching animation and heartfelt stories are reflections of the passionate animators behind the scenes. Their dedication and care to these movies instill a “lifelike element” to hand-drawn animation.
The key element to Ghibli movies is that they are so full of life. There’s something about these movies that makes them so mesmerizing to watch–they get the viewer immersed in the world they are depicting and the story being told. Every person, building, animal, and background is meticulously drawn with detail by the animators.
A four-second scene for the movie The Wind Rises took Studio Ghibli around a year and three months to finish, all hand-drawn and painted with watercolor. They often work long hours a day, sometimes not even able to leave for days on end, and barely eating or not eating at all. Aside from Hayao Miyazaki and some of the executive producers, the Studio Ghibli animators don’t receive much public appreciation.
It takes years for Studio Ghibli to finish animating a film, but with the improvement of OpenAI’s image generation tool, anybody can use it to create images in different styles, even the Ghibli-style, in seconds. The only thing that users have to do is upload their images to OpenAI and request the style they want. These posts quickly flooded social media, including memes, the users themselves, and animals. Many users online shared sentiments about how they were reliving their childhood and experiencing the wonderful world of Ghibli through this filter.
While many people online express enjoyment in using the filter, celebrating the studio with the photos as tributes, many artists have heavily criticized the trend. They spent years learning the fundamentals of art, refining their style, only for AI to use it and spit out an artwork of their style in seconds. Some artists have even taken legal action against this process. AI takes the creativity and skills that artists put into their works without their permission or credit. Others in the art world, such as actors, musicians, and writers, have shown to share the same sentiment.
A common problem that many face in the artwork is struggling to get work and commissions, but that’s just becoming a bigger concern with the increasing popularity and usage of AI. Initially, AI art was made fun of by people online for how terrible it looked, especially hands. Now, some are indistinguishable from real pieces made by artists. On social media, there are often comments such as “Is this AI?” under art pieces. As these models get better, it leads to artists getting fewer commissions, as many companies use AI to create “artworks” since it’s cheaper and faster to do.
I interviewed Bronx Science’s art teacher, Ms. Tessa Sutton for her insights into this issue. “Graphic designers have issues with AI stealing and basically replicating, and I know people who have been affected by this phenomenon, with their business financially and so forth,” Sutton said. In the animation industry, there is a common fear among animators that studios might use AI to create background art, potentially leading to fewer job opportunities for animators. The main question that everyone has been debating is, ‘Is it wrong for AI to learn from and imitate artists’ work without their permission?’ After all, images from the internet, such as art from artists, have been used by AI models as training material.
With the popularity of the AI Ghibli trend, a certain quote by Miyazaki has also been gaining attention. In a 2016 documentary, Miyazaki remarked after seeing an animation of a zombie done by using AI, “Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. If you want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” Using AI in creative fields goes against the ideals of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. The key essence of their animation is its human element, which AI can never emulate. It can’t create something it can’t understand.
Many artists expressed the sentiment that it was an attack on the studio’s hard work and hand-drawn animations, saying that AI models were using Ghibli’s art without Miyazaki’s permission. People using AI to create Ghibli-esque photos take away the creative process–it’s what makes art have a soul.
Despite the growing criticisms, OpenAI has refused to give royalties to Studio Ghibli and has even encouraged the AI Ghibli trend, with its CEO, Sam Altman, using the filter for his profile picture on the social media platform X. After hearing the complaints made to the growing usage of AI for art, Altman stated that the “Trade off is worth it,” and that “If they have something interesting to say, they get it out there, and the world benefits from that.” AI companies stated that their models create new and unique images that only resemble prior art, and thus do not infringe copyrights. On the other hand, many are saying that it’s violating the millions of artists by stealing their works without consent and producing works that will compete with the original.
In a similar situation, OpenAI has been using New York Times articles without permission to train its language models. In 2023, the news organization filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. The case still continues to this day, with the AI company failing to remove the case from federal court.
There’s grounds for Studio Ghibli if they do want to file a case against OpenAI, but staff have still not addressed the controversy, and it’s not clear whether OpenAI has the license to use their art for their AI. If the company has a license to use the art for training, then they are in the clear. However, if this is happening without consent, there could be lawsuits filed against OpenAI. As a response, OpenAI stated that they added a function in which, when a user tries to create an image in the style of a living artist, the AI will refuse to generate it, but it will allow for the usage of broader studio styles.
AI could be a useful tool if implemented with ethical guidelines. For example, if AI models respected artists’ decisions of not wanting their art to be used or paying licensing fees for training images. Rather than replacing creativity, AI should be used to enhance it. Some artists use AI as inspiration for their art, such as color palettes. It can also offer more experimentation for artists without taking too much of their time. “In the art classroom, I don’t really use AI because I feel like kids have to make their own creativity. In brainstorming we use it on occasion, but I don’t let them copy anything. And in Advanced Placement Art classes, they don’t use AI at all,” Ms. Sutton said.
People using AI to create Ghibli-esque photos take away the creative process–it’s what makes art have a soul.