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Why Did Ghibli Studio on ChatGPT Gain Popularity So Quickly?
The internet has recently been dominated by edits in the style of Studio Ghibli. People worldwide are attempting to transform their everyday lives into the famous animation style of Studio Ghibli with the aid of OpenAI’s most recent native picture generator. However, it is important to remember that Hayao Miyazaki, the head of Studio Ghibli, strongly opposes these methods, calling them “insults to life itself” in a documentary.
What is Studio Ghibli?
Studio Ghibli is a well-known and award-winning Japanese animation studio situated in Koganei, Tokyo. Animators and filmmakers Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao, along with producer Suzuki Toshio, formed it in 1985. Over the years, the business has gained international recognition for producing high-caliber animated feature films with hand-drawn characters.
What Does ‘Ghibli’ Literally Mean?
Ghibli is named after an Arabic word from Libya that describes a hot desert breeze. Among Studio Ghibli’s most well-known productions are:
- Princess Mononoke
- Spirited Away
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Ponyo
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
Their animation style is characterized by muted color palettes and gentle pastels, as well as the careful detailing of human characters.
How to Make Ghibli-Style Images for Free
In response to the popularity of the trend, OpenAI has made its AI-powered image-generation tool available to ChatGPT users for free. Here’s how to try it:
- Download the ChatGPT app or visit the website.
- Click the
+icon in the lower-left corner to upload an image. - Enter “Ghiblify this” or “Make this picture into a portrait in the style of Studio Ghibli.”
- Your Ghibli-style image will be available for download and saving in seconds.
Why is the Trend So Widespread?
Although AI-powered image generation has been around for a while, ChatGPT’s new native image features gave text-to-image tools a huge boost in popularity. Previously, only paying subscribers could use these capabilities, but OpenAI’s decision to make them available to free users has accelerated the trend. Users of xAI’s chatbot Grok 3 also contributed to the rise in popularity by using its AI capabilities to produce Ghibli-like transformations.
The Timeless Allure of Ghibli
Animations like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Howl’s Moving Castle have captivated viewers for decades since Studio Ghibli was established by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Generations of animators and artists have been inspired by their unique hand-drawn animation, delicate color schemes, and surreal settings.
What Makes It Dangerous? The Possible Use of Your Data by OpenAI
Social media is overflowing with portraits in the Ghibli style. What started as a playful online fad has sparked heated controversy. While thousands of people enjoy sharing their Ghibli-fied photos, digital privacy activists warn that OpenAI might be secretly collecting vast amounts of personal data, which users willingly and carelessly provide.
An alarming question at the center of this debate is whether OpenAI is leveraging this viral trend to collect free, high-quality visual data for its AI model training. Even though Miyazaki has denounced AI-generated art as an “insult to life itself,” the issue goes beyond copyright. Activists highlight a bigger problem: data collection.
Voluntarily uploaded photographs create a legal loophole compared to web-scraped images, which are subject to strict legal scrutiny. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), OpenAI would typically have to justify picture scraping by citing “legitimate interest” and ensuring data protection measures. However, when users freely submit their photographs, they effectively bypass these restrictions.
Luiza Jarovsky, a privacy expert at the AI, Tech & Privacy Academy, told AP:
“When users willingly upload these photographs, they grant OpenAI permission to process them. Under this new legal foundation, OpenAI has more freedom, hence the legitimate interest balancing test is no longer applicable. In other words, OpenAI is obtaining high-resolution, free photos for AI training while retaining ownership of the originals. OpenAI receives both the raw and modified data, which could improve its capacity to train future AI models, whereas other platforms only view the finished ‘Ghibli-style’ version.”
In Summary
Ghibli-style AI images may seem like harmless entertainment, but the reality is more complex. Remember the FaceApp aging filter or Lensa AI’s magical avatars? These viral AI trends have surfaced before. Each time, concerns about privacy arose—only after the data had already been collected.
Is this trend just another example of history repeating itself? A stylish new profile picture might not be the only cost of participation. Users may unknowingly be providing OpenAI with exactly what it needs: a large, diverse, and high-quality dataset of human faces.
Before posting your next Ghibli-style selfie, ask yourself: Is this just a fun internet trend, or am I giving away a part of myself to an AI I don’t fully understand?
