While You're Churning Out Studio Ghibli Selfies With OpenAI, Remember That Hayao Miyazaki Called AI Art "Disgusting" and an "Insult to Life Itself"

The internet has been flooded with pictures modified by OpenAI's new image tool to evoke the style of animation legend Hayao Miyazaki's work at Studio Ghibli.

Despite going mega-viral — to the point where OpenAI took down the free version of its in-app image generator — the trend flies directly in the face of the animator's personal views on the tech. In a 2016 documentary, the filmmaker was shown a demo of an AI-animated 3D model.

"I am utterly disgusted," he said at the time, arguing that the demo reminded him of a friend with a disability. "If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all."

"I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself," he fulminated.

The latest trend spawned countless images that went viral, from Ghibli renditions of the JFK assassination to the photo that showed Donald Trump hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein — and, of course, 9/11.

While it's far from the first time a generative AI-inspired trend has gone viral on the social media platform, the extent to which the Ghibli meme has taken off is notable.

Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wasn't spared, complaining in a Wednesday tweet that "no one" cared about his career until you "wake up one day to hundreds of messages: 'look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha.'"

"My timeline is AGI," Stability AI founder Emad Mostaque quipped with a joke about artificial general intelligence. "All. Ghibli. Images."

Even famous retired boxer Mike Tyson uploaded a Ghibli-fied rendition of his own likeness while holding a white pigeon.

Besides directly opposing the views and wishes of its creator, the trend also highlights the continued debate surrounding copyright and the overall rights of human artists and publishers.

As 404 Media found, it's also trivially easy to generate pictures of far more graphic images in the style of Studio Ghibli movies, demonstrating OpenAI's woefully inadequate implementation of guardrails.

It's an unfortunate new reality, greatly denigrating the iconic, hard work of human animators.

"Imagine being Miyazaki, pouring decades of heart and soul into making this transcendent beautiful tender style of anime, and then seeing it get sloppified by linear algebra," one user tweeted.

Other users also pointed out generative AI's infamous strain on the environment — ironic, given many of Studio Ghibli's films are about humanity's disregard for the planet and ecosystem.

"Irony is dead and all but it’s pretty depressing to see Ghibli AI slop on the timeline not only because Miyazaki famously thinks AI art is disgusting but because he’s spent the last 50 years making art about environmental waste for petty human uses," another user tweeted.

More on the trend: Sam Altman Whines That When You Become a Billionaire, "Everyone Hates You For Everything"