Studio Ghibli style goes viral with OpenAI's new image generator
With OpenAI's new image generator, photos can be converted into a different style. The Internet loves it, creators find it questionable.
A meme in Studio Ghibli style.
(Image: X)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman looks like a character from a Studio Ghibli movie in his new profile picture on X: a comic-like boy. Altman is right on trend. Images that look like they come from one of the studio's well-known films are currently being shared en masse on social networks. Ghibli is responsible for films such as "Princess Mononoke", "The Castle in the Sky" and "My Neighbor Totoro". The images were taken with OpenAI's new image generator. This once again raises the question of copyright.
The word Ghibli is trending on X, there are numerous posts on Reddit and you can hardly avoid the images if you use social media. Well-known memes are now available in Ghibli style. But the Japanese film studio is not responsible.
4o once again raises copyright issues
The images were created with OpenAI's new image generator. This is based on the omnimodal model GPT-4o and has recently been integrated natively into ChatGPT. Its availability is still limited to paid subscriptions, but people with a free account should also be able to access it.
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The image generator can take images and transfer them into a different style. This is what happened with the Ghibli copies. The fact that it is possible to generate images that correspond so well to the style of the films suggests that the AI model has been trained with the films from Studio Ghibli. The question now arises as to whether OpenAI was allowed to use the films for training. There is still no definitive answer.
Several publishers and artists are suing OpenAI, as well as Meta and Midjourney, because they say it is not legal for their works to be used without permission. Judges will have to decide on this. However, as the new image generator from OpenAI can now also output images so precisely in a predefined style, the question also arises as to whether this is permitted. For example, Sarah Andersen has filed a lawsuit against Stability AI, Runway and Midjourney, among others. She and other artists want to take action against both the training and the fact that works can be created in someone else's style. Andersen draws comics that focus on a young woman with a cat. Her character has already been put into stories using image generators that did not correspond to the artist.
Studio Ghibli has not yet commented on the images.
(emw)
