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Studio Ghibli
Openai opened Pandora’s box for AI image generation. This has, of course, been around for a few years, mostly entering prompts in places like Midjourney or Dall-E. But now, Chat GPT 4o has the ability to generate images in its own format, not only generate photos, but also upload them and easily change them to a specific style.
This sparked a Twitter trend based on the beloved studio collection of legendary Miyazaki Hayao hayo hayo hayo animated films. Until it is replicated by AI.
People put their photos in and adapt the memes to the format. I saw NFT APE rendered in style and filled up on Twitter as an actual paid ad.
For animation artists and fans, this new AI technology-based trend of Gibli feels like the ultimate heartbreak. If there’s one studio or animator who never reaches this trend and never approach it, it’s Miyazaki and Ghibli, and it’s been smashed all over the internet as AI Tech’s next big demonstration is gut punch. Miyazaki himself famously blew up AI technology demos for animation.
“I’m totally tired of it. I never want to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel this is a shame for life itself.”
Still, I’m here. Openai CEO Sam Altman has changed his profile picture to his own Ghibli version.
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Openai may have quickly realized that this could cause some issues. This trend is triggered and when you try to put “Studio Ghibli Style” literally in the prompt, you get the message back that you can’t make it because of restrictions. But there are many ways people can get around this.
You can’t pretend that Openai revealed this kind of image generation. There is certainly a mountain of terrifying AI art, but it is dishonest that this technology, where this technology exists, is somewhat west. But creatively and morally, this is horrifying. AI continues to march towards the devastation of all creative fields. Artists, animators and writers may dislike it, but they are not the target. Target enjoys creating and posting Studio Ghibli memes online, and are those who view this AI technology as “good enough” in contrast to human work. And yes, unfortunately, it’s even more convincing.
This is devastating to see it unfold as a fan of animation and artwork, not just Ghibli, but more generally. The idea that this tide can even fight feels like it’s quickly draining.
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