On a random Wednesday, Janu Lingeswaran never expected a simple image upload to spark an internet trend. He uploaded a photo of his 3-year-old ragdoll cat, Mali, into ChatGPT’s new image generator tool. A simple request to transform the image into Ghibli style instantly turned Mali into an anime version.
The result? A feline character straight out of Miyazaki’s films, resembling the iconic cats from My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service.
“I really fell in love with the result,” said Lingeswaran, an entrepreneur who lives near Aachen, Germany. “We’re thinking of printing it out and hanging it on the wall.”
Similar images have been surfacing on the internet for the past 72 hours. One example is the Ghibli-style transformation of Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec heading to a 2024 Olympic silver medal. Another is the “Disaster Girl” meme of a 4-year-old smiling as a house burns in the background.
ChatGPT Made It A Trend
OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, have actively encouraged the “Ghiblification” experiments, despite facing lawsuits over their flagship chatbot. In a bold move, CEO Sam Altman changed his social media profile on X to a Ghibli-style portrait. On Tuesday, the company released a technical paper, announcing that their new tool would take a “conservative approach” to mimicking the unique aesthetics of individual artists, signaling a cautious yet exciting leap forward in AI-driven creativity.
“We added a refusal which triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist,” it said. But the company added in a statement that it “permits broader studio styles — which people have used to generate and share some truly delightful and inspired original fan creations.”
Hayao Miyazaki’s past comments on AI animation came back into the spotlight. Back in 2016, when he saw an AI demo, Miyazaki said he was “utterly disgusted” by what he saw. The demo showed a creepy animation of a body writhing and dragging itself by its head. The person behind the demo explained that AI could create these grotesque movements that humans can’t even imagine, like zombie-like motions.
Miyazaki Slams AI Animation, Calls It an Insult to Life
Miyazaki’s reaction to the AI demo led him to share a personal story. “Every morning, not in recent days, I see my friend who has a disability,” Miyazaki said. “It’s so hard for him just to do a high five; his arm with stiff muscle can’t reach out to my hand. Now, thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is.” He went on to say he would “never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all” and added, “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
Also Read: What is the Ghibli and ChatGPT connection, and why has it taken the Internet by storm?
