If you’ve been on social media in the past few days, there is a strong chance that you’ve seen AI-generated images imitating the iconic style of Studio Ghibli – the Japanese animation company responsible for classic films like Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle.
Thanks to a new version of ChatGPT, users can transform popular internet memes or personal photos into the distinct style of Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki, a renowned critic of AI who has strongly condemned the technology in the past.
However, the trend also highlighted ethical concerns about artificial intelligence tools trained on copyrighted creative works and what that means for the future livelihoods of human artists, as well as ethical questions on the value of human creativity in a time increasingly shaped by algorithms.
Miyazaki, 84, known for his hand-drawn approach and whimsical storytelling, has criticised AI's role in animation in the past.
One of the most famous instances was in a 2016 documentary called Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki.
In the documentary, a group of developers showed Miyazaki a crude AI-generated animation demo of a zombie that could be used for a video game.
The person demonstrating the animation, which showed a writhing body dragging itself by its head, explained that AI could “present us grotesque movements that we humans can’t imagine.”
That prompted Miyazaki to tell a story.
“Every morning, not in recent days, I see my friend who has a disability,” he 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.”
Miyazaki added: “Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted… I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
The viral AI trend has been shared across various social media platforms, with the White House posting its version of the craze on Thursday (27 March) which has drawn widespread criticism.
The White House used the tool to illustrate a picture of a 36-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic, crying after being arrested by ICE.
Although the image has been viewed more than 45 million times on X/Twitter many have called the post “evil” and “ghastly”.
https://t.co/PVdINmsHXs pic.twitter.com/Bw5YUCI2xL
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 27, 2025
This isn’t the first time that Studio Ghibli-inspired AI has caused controversy.
In October an AI-generated trailer of the 1997 film Princess Mononoke sparked backlash after going viral on social media.
The AI trailer, which uses the English voice acting from the original film, featuring talents like Billy Cudrup, Clare Danes and Minnie Driver, has completely reimagined the hand-drawn animation of the Japanese movie as if real people were playing the parts, albeit with CGI.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press.
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