Your ChatGPT Ghibli Images Are Killing What Made Studio Ghibli Special

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“I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”

These are the words of author Joanna Maciejewska that have begun to haunt us much sooner than expected.

You only need to pick up your smartphone and scroll through your social media feed to find your friend’s pictures recast in an anime-ish cozy, romanticized wholesome setting- specific to a legendary Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli. For the uninitiated, Studio Ghibli is the brainchild of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki; with the latter being an Oscar-winning writer, animator, and the creative director behind some of the iconic, genre-defining anime classics globally and some of the most successful spinners in their home country of Japan- namely Spirited away, Grave of the fireflies, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Mononoke among others.

It all began when OpenAI released an update to GPT-4o, backed by DALL-E to create Ghibli-ish images followed by a specific prompt of transforming the uploaded photographs into illustrations. Wondering what supposedly transpired & unleashed a frenzy of people emulating the work of this beloved animation studio, and almost everyone wanting to Ghibli-fy their photographs?

If you’ve seen even one of the Ghibli movies, you’d know that their world is the stuff dreams are made of! The indescribable, magical world that captures the whimsies of life infused with realism. A realism that comes from impeccable attention to detail- the rustling leaves, raindrops drenching the city, every strand of grass separated, people slurping on noodles and a tiny bit dripping, an animated world that brings all your senses to play and immediately sucks you into their world. Miyazaki’s world-building merges nature, politics, history, nostalgia, and human loss and is meant for all ages! No wonder, setting aside all other AI applications, the Ghibli filter has selectively trended out to be the wildly popular one!

DIGITAL REPLICATION VS SOULFUL CRAFT

So, where does the problem lie? This would literally be one of Miyazaki’s worst nightmares come alive, taking the debate around broader AI skepticism further.

Let us look at this infamous instance from the documentary, ’10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki’ (released by NHK in 2019). He adamantly insisted that a scene of a disarrayed crowd after a calamity from Studio Ghibli’s ‘The Wind Rises’ be hand-drawn without using any CGI effects. In consequence, it took animator Eiji Yamamori more than 15 months, a total of 96 images, at 24 frames per second, resulting in 6.4 images per month. Each of these images has roughly 60k to 70k frames, all of them hand-drawn and painted with watercolor! The result was needless to say, spectacular. Every character in the crowd has a distinct personality, each character displaying a distinct facet of the human reaction to a calamity, and everything in the frame looks so beautifully orchestrated.

Cut to now, ironically just about everyone is generating this art despite the entire charm of the studio’s work being based on the fact that it is meticulously handmade by humans. And the most infuriating bit, this includes those who haven’t heard of Miyazaki, let alone seen his work!

While some would argue that art is for all to ‘consume’, what does it say about those who have devoted decades to perfecting their craft? Let me tell you, nothing in a Ghibli world is random, everything comes from a sense of philosophical tenets, years of life experiences, hand-drawn paintings, sacred Japanese folklore & Shinto beliefs, and years & years of effort put in.

Imagine the world replicating your entire life’s work with just one prompt… Imagine pouring decades of heart and soul into making this transcendent beautiful tender style of anime, all so people can rip it off and use it as a filter for their own vacation photos.

Or viral memes or pictures of Ghibli-style Bollywood scenes recreated, which no one asked for!

Blending art into a corporate slop, stripping away all its meaning? That’s more loss than progress.

It’s more problematic given that studios like these might be continuing the legacy of the last bastion of hand-drawn animators. Historically, Miyazaki and Takahata fought hard with Hollywood biggies like Harvey Weinstein to maintain the integrity of their work through cross-country theatrical releases like Princess Mononoke when asked to make cuts and change elements of the fantasy film.

All of this when the famed auteur has previously skewered AI-generated animation, prized the values of painstaking artistry & revered the sanctity of nature versus industry-created work, and never shied away from his disdain for computer-generated graphics.

IS ART BECOMING DISPOSABLE?

Miyazaki’s art has inspired millions. Nintendo’s popular 80’s game ‘A Boy & His Blob’s remake, Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’ & Guillermo del Toro’s eccentric creative movies to name a few. And in just a matter of 24 hours, AI has managed to take one look at the Ghibli style and replicate it. The formerly inimitable craft of the legendary studio made annoying by overconsumption!

This rapid reproduction and distribution raises important questions about how we value artistic creation in the digital age. When something once considered rare and precious becomes instantly accessible to everyone, does it lose what made it special? The disposability of AI-generated art threatens to diminish the perceived value of craftsmanship, patience, and the human touch that defines Studio Ghibli’s work.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATE

Like I said, nothing in the Ghibli world is random. Meaning is what gives soul to the fantastical creations. It says something, not just about humanity’s worldly issues but of nature’s too. ‘Princess Mononoke’ explores deforestation, while ‘Ponyo’ talks about increasing pollution & sea-life restoration.

On the contrary, maintaining AI data centers requires a substantial amount of energy. Did you know that the hydroelectric energy required for a system like GPT-3 to generate an average email is comparable to the amount needed to produce a 500-milliliter bottle of drinking water? The energy consumption for generating thousands of Ghibli-style images would be exponentially higher, creating an ironic contradiction: using environmentally taxing technology to replicate art that often champions environmental conservation.

The relentless generation of these images by users even prompted OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman to urge people to stop making Ghibli-style images, because of an overload on the team. Additionally, the company’s servers were reportedly experiencing severe strain because of the sheer volume of images that people were creating!

THE LEGAL ANGLE

Of course, no artists or designers have been credited or compensated on OpenAI’s part. The rules around using Studio Ghibli’s movies to train the AI models are not legally settled as of now, however, the copyright laws usually allow artists to mimic a visual style rather than directly copying specific characters or scenes. If the anime studio were to drag Open AI into a copyright lawsuit for offering the feature, the chances of winning in court are slim. Meanwhile, Studio Ghibli hasn’t yet commented on the trend.

It is devastating to watch the dilution of Ghibli’s work through hollow AI-inspired art, not just as a Ghibli fan but as an art lover in general. The novelty of the Ghibli trend will likely wear off quickly, more so after OpenAI has limited its usage. And it is, after all, just another filter. For a generation that scrolls past reels at the speed of light, this trend would fade away just as quickly….

Looking back at the time when Miyazaki, after seeing a brief demo of a zombie-like creature prepared by an animator said, “I am utterly disgusted. If you really 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.” When the animator claimed that his goal was to create a machine that draws pictures as humans do, Miyazaki pointed toward a darker future. “I feel like we are nearing the end of the times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves”, he declared. Are we?

As AI increasingly encroaches on creative domains once thought uniquely human, perhaps we should return to Maciejewska’s wisdom: technology should free us to create art, not replace the creation itself.

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