Why social media is flooded with 'Ghibli' style photos

A photo of a reporter recreated in Studio Ghibli style by ChatGPT. Photo: TechCrunch .

Just one day after OpenAI launched its “image generation” feature for ChatGPT, social media has been flooded with AI-generated memes in the style of Studio Ghibli, the famous Japanese animation studio.

Users can upload their own images to ChatGPT to change the style of the image. According to OpenAI, the feature is trained on data that is either publicly available or licensed from partners like Shutterstock.

Everything turns into animation

Since its launch, users have been flocking to try out the feature, creating Studio Ghibli versions of themselves, their families, and their pets. A service that creates AI versions of images has been listed on the Etsy marketplace for prices starting at $14 .

Soon, social media was abuzz with disrespectful AI-generated images. From 9/11 with the Twin Towers, the JFK assassination, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang signing a woman’s chest, to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s congressional testimony, all were recreated in a dreamy Ghibli style.

Even CEO Sam Altman got in on the action, replacing his X profile picture with a Ghibli-style drawing of himself and encouraging his followers to create new versions of him.

OpenAI CEO also joins the AI ​​image generation trend. Photo: Sam Altman.

OpenAI’s latest update comes on the heels of Google’s similar AI image-generating feature in the Gemini Flash model. Gemini Flash previously took social media by storm when users discovered it could be used to remove watermarks from images.

While this feature from Google and OpenAI makes it easier than ever to recreate the style of copyrighted works, the real concern lies in how these AI tools are trained. And the question is whether that violates copyright laws.

The Fine Line of Copyright

The New York Times and several publishers are pursuing lawsuits against OpenAI.

Actress Scarlett Johansson once threatened to sue the company over a voice tool that sounded like her, and OpenAI is also facing a series of lawsuits from writers, major media outlets, and artists who claim the company used their work to train its AI.

According to Evan Brown, an intellectual property attorney at the law firm Neal & McDevitt, artistic styles are not explicitly protected by copyright law, meaning OpenAI is unlikely to be breaking the law simply by creating images that look like Studio Ghibli films.

The allegedly disrespectful images were created by AI in the style of Studio Ghibli. Photo: X.com.

OpenAI added a rejection mechanism when users tried to create images in the style of a living artist. Notably, Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is still alive.

ChatGPT's image guidelines are fairly flexible when it comes to creating this type of content. OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson said the company doesn't block models from recreating images of adult public figures or depicting violence in fictional contexts, as long as it serves an artistic purpose.

Ms Christianson stressed that users should only upload material that they own or have the rights to on the platform, and that they should not edit photos themselves. However, many users did not do so.

It's not just Studio Ghibli that's been copied, with Rick & Morty, Wallace and Gromit, The Simpsons, and South Park all being copied. One person created a Dr. Seuss-style portrait of Marc Andreessen, while a couple turned their wedding photos into Pixar versions.

Mr. Miyazaki, the father of the Ghibli style, expressed his harsh views on AI in 2016, saying that the technology was an insult. However, his comments were also “AIized” on X.

Hayao Miyazaki's views were also recreated by users using AI. Photo: T omieinlove.

Julia Alexander, a reporter who used to work at Disney, said that AI cannot recreate the true spirit and values ​​of Studio Ghibli, a studio that has always been loyal to hand-drawn art. She asked for respect for the studio's artistic team.

TechCrunch 's tests showed that ChatGPT's AI recreated Studio Ghibli's style quite accurately compared to competitors like Google Gemini, Grok, or Playground.ai.

This reflects a major step forward for AI in the field of image generation, but also raises legal issues around intellectual property rights.

Source: https://znews.vn/vi-sao-mang-xa-hoi-tran-ngap-anh-kieu-ghibli-post1541380.html