The internet and social media have become a space for sharing images inspired by the famous style of Japan's Studio Ghibli, thanks to a new feature recently launched by artificial intelligence company OpenAI.
The latest version of OpenAI's image generator has sparked a massive influx of users on social media, where they have been sharing images edited in Ghibli's signature style.
The company touted this generator as "the most advanced to date," integrated into GPT-4o. This generator stands out for its multimodal model capable of producing highly accurate and realistic images.
It also turns out that this generator is particularly adept at mimicking the animated style of Studio Ghibli, known for iconic films such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and The Boy and the Heron.
Following this, Sam Altman, the company's CEO, changed his profile picture on X.
However, Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, had already expressed his strong rejection of AI-generated animation. At a public meeting in 2016, after being shown a demonstration of AI-generated animation, Miyazaki said:
« I feel a deep disgust. If you really want to create scary things, feel free to do so. Personally, I would never want to incorporate this technology into my work. »
He also said: " I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself. »
More recently, Hollywood representatives and other creators have expressed concern about efforts by OpenAI and other industry companies to weaken or remove copyright protections for training their AI systems.
Earlier this month, more than 400 filmmakers, actors, musicians, and other creators filed an objection with the Trump administration over what they see as OpenAI and Google's push for a government exemption allowing them to freely exploit America's creative industries.
OpenAI responded that it "develops its AI models using publicly available data, following a fair use approach and with a view to supporting innovation."
On social media, users have shared numerous examples of Studio Ghibli-inspired images generated using the company's new image generator:
