In the current age of AI programs and trends, it’s no surprise there has been a new AI art trend that has taken over social media, particularly X (or previously Twitter). However, I think it’s most unfortunate that this new trend is AI art in Studio Ghibli style.
This recent take on the trend mainly took off from an update from the artificial intelligence company, OpenAI. The company recently introduced a new model on their website called “4o Image Generation.” With this generator, images are easier to alter and create from nothing. So, social media users have taken this ability and popularized generating images in the Studio Ghibli anime style from either personal pictures or other movie stills.
Since the trend took off, there have been many notable posts using this OpenAI image generator. The most notable ones include people taking their own personal family photos and turning them into the Ghibli style, as seen here. In other examples, users have taken stills from live-action movies and used AI to turn them into the Ghibli animated style, as seen here and here, with movies like Star Wars, The Godfather, and Lord of the Rings. Celebrities are even taking advantage of this generator and trend and seeing what they would look like in this art style, as seen with this post from Mike Tyson.
While many may say these are just lighthearted posts, I think this trend and the problematic undertones are truly shown in a tweet from the official White House account. In a quote tweet to a previous post from them about a woman who was deported in Philadelphia, they included a Studio Ghibli AI version of the pictures they attached of the woman crying. In my opinion, this is not only extremely unprofessional, but disrespectful and abhorrent. To see how our government uses the unchecked balances on social media and these AI websites and generators to dehumanize people is disappointing and unethical in about every way to me.
Even without these extreme cases of the Studio Ghibli AI art trend, I still believe the trend demonstrates immense hypocrisy and shows how art is becoming nothing more than content. The cofounder of Studio Ghibli and director of many of their films, Hayao Miyazaki, has been very clear about his disdain for AI—especially in art. There is a video of a meeting where Miyazaki and other producers and executives are being shown how artificial intelligence can be used to create human movements in animation.
In response to this video, Miyazaki looks heartbroken. To the entire room, he says: “I am utterly disgusted…I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel this is an insult to life itself…We humans are losing faith in ourselves.”
Miyazaki also gestures to the AI model of the human body moving and squirming and mentions how it has never known pain and will never understand it. People are doing this trend out of so-called love for the style of his films without understanding the meaning behind all his work and how they preach environmentalism and expression. So not only do these generators create a legal gray area where art copyright cannot be used and artists’ work not be protected, but in this case, it takes advantage of hardworking animators and goes against the very values of the art they are attempting to replicate.
AI art takes away credit from real people who are artists. I’ve seen many people use the argument for AI art that it has created more accessibility, but I think this is wildly untrue, as art is one of the most accessible things people have had since we have existed. I believe that some of the most successful artists nowadays are in poverty, have disabilities, and have less access all around. People who create, create with a purpose, small or large. Art has always been a means of creative and individual expression and passion — something AI will never be able to truly replicate.