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OpenAI, GKIDS (Indirectly) Respond After Studio Ghibli-Style AI Kerfuffle

A United States district judge ruled on Thursday that The New York Times and several other newspaper groups can proceed with a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft to restrict the two companies from using the newspapers' content to train chatbots like ChatGPT. In a statement following the ruling and the dismissal of some of the plaintiffs' claims, OpenAI said it welcomed "the court's dismissal of many of these claims and [looks] forward to making it clear that [it builds its] AI models using publicly available data, in a manner grounded in fair use, and supportive of innovation."

The ruling comes on the heels of the launch of what OpenAI called its "most advanced image generator yet" in its GPT-4o generative AI model. In a technical paper posted on Tuesday, the company wrote, "We added a refusal which triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist." But it added in a later statement that it "permits broader studio styles -- which people have used to generate and share some truly delightful and inspired original fan creations."

On X (formerly Twitter), CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman appeared to encourage the use of the image generator to modify photographs to appear to be Studio Ghibli stills. Altman uploaded one such "Ghibli-fied" photo of himself to his X/Twitter profile picture on Wednesday and posted a joke about people's use of ChatGPT's image generator in this manner. Many on social media have in recent days seemingly used the generator to recreate and post famous memes into the "Ghibli-fied" style, or post other images or personal photos converted into that style.

In a time when technology tries to replicate humanity, we are thrilled that audiences value a theatrical experience that respects and celebrates Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's masterpiece in all its cinematic hand-drawn glory.

The film earned an estimated US$4,004,482 from March 28-30, and ranked at #6 in its opening weekend.

The co-founder of Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki has previously gone on record regarding his disapproval of AI technology in animation, before the rise of generative AI. During an AI animation demo in the 2016 documentary Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, he famously stated, "I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself." Though, it is worth noting his comments were in regard to the (as described by the demonstrator) "grotesque movements that we humans can't imagine" in the demonstration, which prompted Miyazaki to tell a story about a friend who has a disability and has a hard time moving. Miyazaki also stated at the time he would "never wish to incorporate this technology into [his] work at all."

As of press time Studio Ghibli has not publicly commented on the situation.

Source: Variety (Todd Spangler) (link 2) (Jazz Tangcay), Associated Press, The Mainichi