OpenAI created a storm on the internet after introducing its newest feature of converting user’s images to Ghibli style portraits. This feature was used by thousands of users in just a few days inspiring a new trend on social media platforms. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman also changed his profile picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, into a similar Ghibli style image of himself. However, with the rising popularity of the trend, OpenAI is being widely criticized for stealing the work of Ghibli Studio’s artists.
Ghibli style images’ controversy
Ghibli Studio founder, Hayao Miyazaki has always been vocal about his criticism of AI and its work. Miyazaki strongly spoke against the technology disapproving of its usage. Speaking against it, he said, “Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever.” The Ghibli studio which has created tons of animated films, some of the major ones being ‘Spirited Away’ and ‘The Tale of The Princess Kaguya’, has inspired what is turning into AI’s most viral trend.
However, in response to the fame, OpenAI is now fighting various copyright complaints. Many artists are claiming that the newest technology is stealing their work and incorporating it into AI’s database to generate Ghibli style portraits. Hayao Miyazaki has termed AI an “insult to life itself” in response to the animations. The Ghibli Studio founder further stated that technologies like Artificial Intelligence cannot compete with humans and would ultimately fail to grasp the real feelings of human beings.
In a video that has since then gone viral, Miyazaki was shown an AI generated animation of zombies to be used in a video game. The presenter of the images stated that AI has the capability to create “grotesque movements” that humans can’t fortunately imagine themselves.
In response to this, Miyazaki revealed about a friend who is disabled and suffers from walking normally. He exclaimed his frustration on the matter saying that such distasteful images reminded him of his friend’s problems. He stated that these kinds of images are not enjoyable due to such reasons.
Further speaking on the matter, Miyazaki explicitly stated, “I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting.” He also directly spoke to the technology creators telling them to go ahead with making such “creepy stuff”. However, he also added that he would never want his work to be incorporated into this technology.
After Miyazaki’s take on the matter, the presenters of the zombie videos explained that the animation was just an experiment and they didn’t have any aim to reveal it to the world.
Did OpenAI ban Ghibli style portraits after the massive controversy?
After a sudden increase in the requests to OpenAI to generate Ghibli images, some users began to face difficulties in getting their pictures. One AI user posted about his experience on Reddit revealing that he received a weird message after putting in a request for the portrait. The message read that OpenAI now has “restrictions” on creating pictures “in the style of specific artists including Ghibli Studio”. They also cited copyright as the reason for this action.
The technology’s CEO is currently fighting tons of copyright claims including one from the New York Times which sued them claiming that OpenAI incorporated millions of the newspaper’s articles to train its system. Various authors have also sued them on similar complains.
CEO, Sam Altman revealed on his X account that the enormous traffic on ChatGPT platforms has led to their GPU’s “melting”. He further promised that they are doing their best to make it more sustainable and user-friendly.
In response to the copyright claims, the AI company stated that they are now going for a “conservative approach” to imitate the work of artists. It further reassured its users that a refusal option was added to reject requests to generate the work of living artists.
Ghibli style portraits trend
The craze for Ghibli style images has spread so far out that the White House also posted an image in the same style. They generated the image of a woman crying after her arrest by ICE. This move was widely criticized by the general public who called the post “insensitive” and “evil”.