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Hayao Miyazaki is the legendary Japanese artist who made great animated films including Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, at his co-founded Studio Ghibli. He is also an avowed hater of artificial intelligence technology being used in animation, calling it “an insult to life itself.” Sam Altman is the ignominious CEO of OpenAI, whose ChatGPT tool launched an upgrade last week that improves its image generator. The release of the new ChatGPT arrived in conjunction with OpenAI being less stringent (under this government) about the images users can generate. Altman called it “a new high-water mark for us in allowing creative freedom.” How that’s actually manifested, is people having the “creative freedom” to conjure more offensive imagery, and the freedom to use copyrighted works without artist consent — at least until the artist spots the misuse and takes legal action. This is the juncture at which Studio Ghibli currently finds itself. Memes have recently swept social media in which Studio Ghibli’s style was explicitly invoked using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and though Studio Ghibli hasn’t sued the AI company yet, experts say they certainly have the grounds to do so:
OpenAI’s extremely popular AI chatbot tool ChatGPT caught a huge wave this week when untold numbers of users started using it to generate images evoking the style of animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s work at Studio Ghibli.
The trend quickly took on a life of its own. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to X-formerly-Twitter to joke about being turned into a “twink ghibli style.”
OpenAI has since started cracking down on the trend, implementing a confusing range of changes that now often refuse requests to generate images in Ghibli’s style.
The viral trend, and OpenAI’s chaotic response, reignited a heated debate surrounding copyright and the use of generative AI directly undermining the work of human artists and publishers — including the extremely talented animators at Ghibli.
And according to former general counsel at the TV channel Showtime and AI expert Rob Rosenberg, Ghibli may actually be able to take legal action against OpenAI over the situation.
While it’s a “complex question” whether the Japanese animation studio would have enough grounds, the company “might have the ability to claim OpenAI has violated the Lanham Act which provides the basis for claims related to false advertising, trademark infringement and unfair competition,” Rosenberg, now the founder of Telluride Legal Strategies, told Futurism.
The Lanham Act, which was enacted in 1946, is the primary federal statute governing trademark law in the US, and establishes a national system of trademark registration that allows owners to pursue infringement lawsuits.
“Ghibli could argue that by converting user photos to ‘Ghibli-style,’ OpenAI is trading off the goodwill of Ghibli’s trademarks, using Ghibli’s identifiable style and leading to a likelihood of confusion among consumers that this function is endorse or licensed by Studio Ghibli,” Rosenberg argued.
OpenAI could also be sued for “training its large language models on Studio Ghibli’s copyrighted works,” he added.
OpenAI is already facing several lawsuits over its approach to scouring the internet for training data for its models, including plenty of copyrighted material.
…Aside from questions regarding the possible infringement of copyright, OpenAI could be robbing Chibli of other ways to monetize.
“If Studio Ghibli ever wanted to launch its own tool allowing fans to transform photos into its signature style, OpenAI’s update has essentially taken that business opportunity away,” Rosenberg said. “Worse, this technology could lead to people generating entire animated projects in the Ghibli style and falsely presenting them as authentic.”
Sue, Studio Ghibli, sue! The only way the billionaire tech bros will ever stop using copyrighted works is if they’re made to pay. There were reports that Studio Ghibli sent a cease and desist letter to OpenAI, but Ghibli squashed that by confirming the letter circulated online was fake. Seems like a fitting development for the world of AI. But if not for the money, then Studio Ghibli needs to sue in order to protect its good name against what’s being produced using their signature style. Case in point: offensive intersected with trademark infringement to regurgitate this heinous Instagram post from the official White House account, where the Ghibli style was used to depict a woman being arrested by ICE. As always, the cruelty is the point with the Trump administration (in addition to the bottomless stupidity, I don’t mean to minimize that element). Meanwhile, CB noted that over on Blue Sky users are offering counter-programming by posting hand–drawn homages to Studio Ghibli created with love, instead of generated to stoke hatred. Long live art crafted by human hands!
"I strongly feel that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an insult to life itself."
— Hayao Miyazaki
— Studio Ghibli Pictures (@ghiblipictures.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 5:15 PM
Spirited Away (2001)
— Studio Ghibli Pictures (@ghiblipictures.bsky.social) August 29, 2023 at 11:48 PM
I hope they sue. Really.
This is an issue for artist everywhere.
Please sue them.
Please sue them. No one is going to be able to make a living doing anything except manual labor of these billionaires aren’t stopped now.
Love Studio Ghibli!
The Israeli army posting cutesy images of its soldiers while killing hundreds of people at the same time was really jarring. I hope they get to sue a lot of people for stealing their art and using it for all the wrong reasons.
How can the AI make images ‘in the style of’ if it hasn’t been fed the original artworks? Surely that’s grounds to go after them?
Getting sued by one of the most legendary animators/animation studios on Earth might be the only way these pathetic techbros are gonna learn. But only time will tell.