The Miyazaki Maelstrom: OpenAI’s Ghibli Craze Signals Troubling Future for Hollywood

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In Hayao Miyazaki’s contemporary masterpiece, Spirited Away, Chihiro, a young protagonist, along with her parents, wander an apparently deserted amusement park. A boy named Haku approaches Chihiro with a caution: she must return across the dried-up river and depart before sunset if she wishes to. Unfortunately, she neglects his advice, and as the day progresses, the river floods and her parents transform into pigs, trapping them in a strange realm they struggle to comprehend.

Fans of animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli may find the recent tool released by OpenAI on March 25 particularly fitting. This tool enables users to transform any image into the distinctive style of various artists, including Miyazaki and his team. In a short time, numerous individuals have been using this tool, spurred on by Sam Altman, the bold leader of OpenAI, who transformed his own X profile picture into an ethereal, somewhat bewildered child reminiscent of one who might wander through Howl’s Moving Castle.

4o, one of OpenAI’s GPT models launched last year, received an upgrade recently to enhance high-end image generation capabilities. The update was met with enthusiasm by paying subscribers, who shared their extraordinary results across various social media platforms. As Altman excitedly stated on Monday, “The launch of ChatGPT 26 months ago was one of the most viral moments I’ve ever witnessed, and we gained a million users in just five days. With this update, we added a million new users within an hour.

Instead of resisting, consider the delight in blending Miyazaki’s distinctive, handcrafted style, honed over countless hours and fueled by dreaming, with our family’s Disneyland photos – all achievable effortlessly with just a few keystrokes.

It’s quite ironic that a machine is creating images, meant as tribute, when Miyazaki himself was so precise with his own hand-drawn art. In fact, Miyazaki has expressed strong disapproval of AI in art, calling it an insult to life itself. This perspective, contrasted with many people using this tool to honor his work, makes their actions seem amusingly incongruous and a bit awkward. Whether or not Altman has noticed this discrepancy is unclear.

These events unfold as a federal judge gives the go-ahead to The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT was trained using numerous articles without consent, highlighting copyright disputes. In a technical sense, OpenAI, mindful of potential infringement issues, configured its image tool to prevent imitating a specific artist. However, it didn’t impose similar restrictions on studios, resulting in a surge of content resembling the Ghibli style on our feeds.

Dotdash Meredith, publisher of giants like People and Travel + Leisure, disclosed that their deal with OpenAI amounted to a modest $16 million last year, hardly a significant financial boost for a company generating almost half a billion dollars in publishing revenue.

The victory of OpenAI’s Ghibli takeover faced opposition from certain creative minds in Hollywood. Alex Hirsch, creator of the popular Disney Channel show Gravity Falls, playfully commented on Altman, “Impressive! Utilizing Ghibli’s art to educate your model and leveraging their name for promotion certainly boosted your earnings significantly! Not to mention, your intentions to send a substantial royalty payment to Ghibli shows what a wonderful person you are!

GKIDS, the U.S. distributor for Studio Ghibli, subtly hinted at a lower-key tone when they announced a new Imax restoration of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1997 historical fantasy “Princess Mononoke”. Their distribution vice-president, Chance Huskey, made a dry comment that “In an era where technology strives to mimic humanity, we are delighted that audiences appreciate a theatrical experience that honors and applauds Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece in all its hand-drawn, cinematic splendor.

In response, Reid Southen, a renowned concept illustrator who’s been vocal about Hollywood’s AI image-generation trend, fired back at Altman saying, “Continue boasting about your growing user base following the Ghibli incident, it just provides more ammunition for those arguing against you, genius.

A significant number of individuals support this perspective – approximately 25,000 people showed appreciation for Hirsch’s post. Regrettably, it is unlikely that any of these supporters hold positions in the management of Hollywood studios.

The frenzy surrounding Studio Ghibli stems from something heartwarming – people’s longing to connect with an adored artist, with the artwork serving as a reflection of Miyazaki’s profound impact. However, beneath this lies something complex, a tendency to treat all art as indistinguishable and commodifiable. The urgent drive to transform our memories into customized Miyazaki-themed greeting cards, from one perspective, shows our affection for the artist. Yet, it more significantly reflects our self-love, and neither copyright issues nor respect for art seem able to deter us from satisfying this craving.

Essentially, GhiblAI marks the culmination or the most recent significant stage in a developing trend that’s been unfolding for some time. For over a century, cinema has been our gateway to distant realms (considering Miyazaki’s work embodies this perfectly), while social media for the past two decades has allowed us to star as the protagonists of our own narratives. OpenAI’s latest tool seamlessly blends these two worlds together.

We no longer need to view Ponyo’s bond with Sosuke, Ashitaka’s royal adventure seeking the Forest Spirit, or Mahito’s journey with a talking heron searching for his mother during World War II as tales from ancient times and enchanted realms. Instead, these stories are being played out in the here and now, at December’s Christmas party on the sixth floor of the office building.

Or:

Stories like Ponyo’s relationship with Sosuke, Ashitaka’s journey to confront the Forest Spirit, or Mahito’s quest with a talking heron to find his mother during WWII – once relegated to ancient history and magical lands – are now happening in real time at December’s Christmas party on the sixth floor of the office building.

As a dedicated enthusiast, it’s unclear where this journey is heading next, but the path from MySpace to Facebook, Instagram, and now TikTok, marked by their filters and transformations, serves as our compass. The next phase in our culture of self-expression may not just be about immersing ourselves in the narrative, but rather, coloring it with the palettes of the legendary artists who preceded us. It’s about transforming the grand tapestry of cinema into another accessory we flaunt, casually displaying our digital sophistication at the online marketplace.

It’s evident that this path ahead was visible not just because of the growing frustration of Hollywood studios, who for years have been trying to mine past memories through reboots and sequels but are now seeing their efforts result in dwindling success. Executives at these companies, which were once responsible for crafting and preserving these memories, may start considering personalization akin to OpenAI’s latest approach as the only viable commercial strategy – to digitize Miyazaki’s work, regardless of any conflicting feelings, to access a collective machine subconscious, regardless of their role as overseers of the Dream Factory.

It’s possible that certain production companies might hold out or even score some legal triumphs. However, it seems that the trend is shifting towards automated and personalized content, moving away from human creativity. This recent development underscores how OpenAI could potentially disrupt the entertainment industry significantly. On March 31, the company managed to secure a $40 billion investment at a staggering $300 billion valuation. Already, it has grown into an entity that rivals or even surpasses some of the historic studios that once dominated Hollywood.

In the story of “Spirited Away,” a powerful overseer oppressively rules over his workers in this mysterious new realm, renaming them so they lose sight of their true selves. Haku enters with a foreboding message for Chihiro: Forget your name and you’ll vanish, he warns her. As she gazes at herself, struggling to recall her familiar name before it fades away forever.

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2025-04-01 19:25