OpenAI launched a new image generator powered by GPT-40 on March 27, featuring Studio Ghibli-inspired images that appear to depict famous and controversial memes—going against the ethos of Studio Ghibli. It is described as “a demonstration of technology’s power and the copyright concerns it raises.”
Some of the viral posts are the “distracted boyfriend” meme, a stressed Ben Affleck smoking, and Elon Musk playing with cutlery which was “an image based on the recent video of the billionaire balancing spoons during a dinner hosted by Trump in New Jersey.”
It's been 24 hours since OpenAI unexpectedly shook the AI image world with 4o image generation.
Here are the 14 most mindblowing examples so far (100% AI-generated):
1. Studio ghibli style memespic.twitter.com/E38mBnPnQh
— Barsee 🐶 (@heyBarsee) March 26, 2025
Nobody asked for Bollywood movie scenes in Ghibli style — but here they are. pic.twitter.com/umiDAA7LNu
— Vivek Choudhary (@ivivekch) March 26, 2025
This is not the first time that OpenAI has faced criticism for being a medium that has allowed prompters to disrupt and distort the works of many artists in the creative field. Media outlets have now raised that with this new release in the image generating AI, the inappropriate Studio Ghibli memes are a mere addition to the list.
Co-founder and animator of the Japanese animation house Hayao Miyazaki has long declared his stance against the use of AI in art, and described it as an “insult to life itself” after he was shown an example of an AI animation back in 2016. Miyazaki had raised in that same event, “Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is or whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted.”
Miyazaki ultimately declared, “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my art at all. I strongly feel like this is an insult to life itself.”
OpenAI said that the incorporation of the new image generator would allow the production of images “that is not only beautiful, but useful.” Today, Ghibli’s house style, founded in 1985 by creatives who have put their effort and skill into creating unique work, is available as a generative filter, and timelines in social media are filled with photos transformed into anime images.
While there are generators that are supposed to have controls that prevent prompters from copying specific artistic styles from famous creatives, it has become clear that this does not seem to be the case with the GPT-40 as it is “doing a fairly convincing job of evoking the Ghibli aesthetic for a wide range of prompts.”
Studio Ghibli fans have voiced their displeasure with the new generator online, remarking that the trend was in bad taste and “cheapened the carefully cultivated aesthetics of an animation studio known for its dedication to the craft.”
Miyazaki spent his entire life building one of the most expansive and imaginative bodies of work, all so you could rip it off and use it as a filter for your vacation photos.
Not into this one bit. Protect artists.
— Robbie Shilstone (@shilstone_arts) March 26, 2025
You will never be able to replicate Ghibli, no matter how "good" you think your AI generated trash looks, for it fundamentally lacks all that makes a shot great; emotion, depth, the heart and soul only visible in the labour of an artist who wanted to create *this* specific frame. pic.twitter.com/78dBQoUHEZ
— The Sietch of Sci-Fi (@TSoS_) March 27, 2025
AI wont make your photos Ghibli. Ghibli is hand drawn and each character has insane emotional depth. As scary it is to admit the result looks decent, it’s nothing like Ghibli and will never be. Big fuck you to AI. This is terrible advancement of technology.
— pelz (@pelziee) March 26, 2025
Every single person posting Ghibli AI has miserably failed to understand Ghibli as an art form
— Rehat (@R3H8T) March 26, 2025
The whole Studio Ghibli AI trend honestly gives me second-hand embarrassment knowing how hard Hayao Miyazaki has fought to retain the identity of his films and how many of you are this willing to make a farce out of decades of artistry because you don’t actually value it https://t.co/TgSxnb1Ah5
— gregor samsung 𖢥 (@slimjosa) March 27, 2025
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
— Nabeel S. Qureshi (@nabeelqu) March 26, 2025
irony is dead and all but it’s pretty depressing to see Ghibli A.I. slop on the timeline not only because Miyazaki famously thinks A.I. art is disgusting but because he’s spent the last 50 years making art about environmental waste for petty human uses
— Brendan Hodges (@metaplexmovies) March 27, 2025
With this rising trend, OpenAI’s Studio Ghibli filter highlights how art is becoming disposable, due to generative AI, and raises the question of the need for these image generators when real, living artists exist in the world.
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