- Using ChatGPT’s new Studio Ghibli style filter to make images is trending on social media.
- OpenAI’s latest image generation technology has proven super popular since launching earlier this week.
- Studio Ghibli’s co-founder once said he felt “utterly disgusted” by the usage of AI to make art.
The launch of ChatGPT’s new and improved image generator technology has led to a huge spike in usage for particularly that portion of the chatbot’s repertoire. So much so that creator OpenAI’s CEO says that the company’s GPUs are “melting” from the massive computing power needed for all the images being generated at once.
Earlier this week, OpenAI launched its image generator powered by GPT-4o model, which can produce honestly incredible simulacra of real images and probably the most accurately AI-rendered text on the market.
Unexpectedly, the generator’s filter that can make real images look like they had been animated by Japanese film producers Studio Ghibli has exploded in popularity following the launch.
>be me
>grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever
>mostly no one cares for first 7.5 years, then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything
>wake up one day to hundreds of messages: "look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha"— Sam Altman (@sama) March 26, 2025
The explosion in popularity was seemingly organic, one from users on social media, but it was surely bolstered by a viral post from CEO Sam Altman, a 4chan-style greentext on X about the Ghibli style filter, that accrued 3.6 million views in two days.
Altman also changed his X profile picture to one generated by ChatGPT in the Ghibli style. Seemingly everyone is using the new filter, even the Trumpian White House, in a post about deportations.
https://t.co/PVdINmsHXs pic.twitter.com/Bw5YUCI2xL
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 27, 2025
Famously, Studio Ghibli’s co-founder and animation icon, Hayao Miyazaki, shared his disgust for the usage of AI-generated content in art, particularly in animation. In a 2016 documentary, Miyazaki was shown early examples of AI-generated animation and absolutely hated it.
“Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever,” he tells the people giving the demo, whom are crying by the end. “I am utterly disgusted… I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
In context, the AI-generated 3D animation clip of a monster he was shown was still a long way from what AI can do with video generation nowadays, and Miyazaki’s response came from the fact that what he saw reminded him of a personal friend with a physical disability.
He did, however, say “I would never wish to incorporate this technology in my work at all.”
Miyazaki then has a supremely Miyazaki-like response for when the AI demonstrators tell him that their goal is to one day make a machine that can “draw like a human.”
“I feel like we are nearing to the end of times,” he says. “Humans are losing trust in themselves.”
Aside from the creative issues around AI “art”, which we have written about before, the widespread usage of the filter also calls into question OpenAI’s stance on copyright. The company has publicly said in the past that if AI firms were not allowed to breach copyright to train their models, the industry would likely fail.
Earlier this month, OpenAI told lawmakers in the US to reconsider regulations around copyright just for AI companies and particularly ones in the US, using the spectre of the rapidly growing power of Chinese AI as the impetus for the US to make this change.
Of course, lawyers from Studio Ghibli could argue in court that OpenAI using the company’s distinctive art style was in breach of intellectual property laws. Time will tell if it ever comes to that.
