ChatGPT’s Ghibli-Style Images Spark AI Copyright Concerns

Photo : AP

Studio Ghibli, the famous Japanese movie studio that made Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, has become part of a new internet trend. A new tool in ChatGPT lets people turn their photos or popular pictures into drawings that look like Studio Ghibli movies. Many people are excited to see their pictures change into beautiful anime-style images, but some artists are angry. They say this AI tool is using the style of Studio Ghibli without asking for permission. Hayao Miyazaki, the man behind Studio Ghibli, has said before that he does not like AI in art, making this issue even bigger.

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One man from Germany, Janu Lingeswaran, was happy to try this new tool. He took a picture of his pet cat, Mali, and asked ChatGPT to turn it into Ghibli-style art. The AI quickly made a picture that looked like his cat but in the special, hand-painted style of Studio Ghibli movies. He loved the picture so much that he thought about printing it and putting it on his wall. Many others started doing the same thing, turning famous internet pictures into Ghibli-style drawings. One popular example was the Disaster Girl meme, where a little girl smiles at the camera while a house burns behind her. Another was a picture of Turkish Olympic shooter Yusuf Dikec, who looked very relaxed while winning a silver medal. Even OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, joined the trend. He changed his profile picture on social media to a Ghibli-style version of himself.

As more people shared their AI-made Ghibli pictures, some experts started asking if this was legal. Some lawyers said that an artist’s style is not protected under copyright law, but if AI copies specific details from Studio Ghibli’s movies, it could be a problem. A lawyer named Josh Weigensberg explained that if you pause a scene from Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, you can see special colors, designs, and brushstrokes. If AI is making pictures that look exactly the same, it might be breaking copyright rules. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said that its AI tool does not copy the style of living artists, but it does allow users to make art in the style of studios like Ghibli. However, OpenAI has not answered if it got permission from Studio Ghibli to use its art.

Miyazaki, the famous Studio Ghibli filmmaker, has always spoken against AI in animation. In 2016, he saw an AI-made animation of a creepy, zombie-like figure pulling itself forward. The people who made it were excited, saying AI could make movements that human artists had never thought of. Miyazaki was not impressed. He said he had a friend with a disability who struggles to move his arms, and watching the AI animation made him feel disgusted. He said this kind of AI technology showed no understanding of human pain and called it “an insult to life itself.”

Many artists agree with Miyazaki and believe AI is stealing from real artists. Karla Ortiz, a professional artist who is suing AI companies for taking artists’ work without permission, strongly criticized OpenAI. She said the company is using Studio Ghibli’s name and style to sell its technology without paying or crediting the original artists. She believes this is unfair and harmful to artists who work hard to create original art.

The issue became even bigger when the White House joined the trend. The U.S. government posted a Ghibli-style image of a crying woman from the Dominican Republic who had been arrested by immigration officers. Many people were upset, including Ortiz, who called it a horrible use of AI. She said it was shocking to see something as beautiful as Miyazaki’s work used for something so serious and painful. She even said she hopes Studio Ghibli sues OpenAI for using its art style without permission.

So far, Studio Ghibli has not said anything about this trend. The Japanese studio and its American distributor have not responded to questions from reporters. While many people love seeing their photos turned into Ghibli-style pictures, the debate over AI in art continues. This situation shows how AI is making big changes in the art world, but not everyone agrees on whether those changes are good or bad.