On the whole Ghibli trend...
Is AI really cheapening real art? Let's talk about the latest ChatGPT trend
The accessibility and advancement of Artificial Intelligence tools are again on display in the Gallery of Internet.
Calling AI a fad gets harder by the day as these Silicon Valley (and Chinese) startups race to add features to their talking-not-yet-walking robots.
The latest of the detrimental impacts AI has is, sadly, again on artists. This time though, it isn’t winning $100,000 award contests and questioning what it means to be art.
AI is winning a different type of game— the hashtag trend game on social media. I, of course, refer to the latest Ghibli trend.
The craze has melted both servers and the hearts of connoisseurs of art alike. And I don’t agree with these purists for a change. Why?
Firstly, Ghibli is Not Small
It isn’t. And Hayao Miyazaki, as brilliant and artistic as he is, isn’t an indie director either.
Spanning more than two decades of releases, they have earned billions of dollars with the style and the films they produce.
Four of the studio’s films are among the ten highest-grossing films in Japan— Wikipedia tells me.
Only two anime films have ever been graced with an Academy Award — Both are from Studio Ghibli and are credited to Miyazaki.
Of course, after Spirited Away, the most recognised of Ghibli’s works, it took the Academy 22 years to recognise another Japanese masterpiece. The wait was long.
And yet, some studios may have stopped waiting at all as some of their best works yet fly under the radar while even Ghibli’s collaborations get to the nomination stage.
In fact, seven of the only eleven anime films nominated so far were associated with Studio Ghibli.
Alas, the nomination process of the Academy does not find a place of discussion here.
Hollywood has indeed overlooked other equally well critiqued and high-grossing works from studios like Kyoto Animation or CoMix Films.
So much from Japan and other countries has rang crickets for Hollywood that some fail to find the Oscars relevant anymore.
Regardless of your opinion on it, though, the point is that a film winning the Oscars garners a lot of attention to itself as well as to its makers. All this is to say — Ghibli was popular even before this trend.
Not only that, Studio Ghibli continues to produce visually stunning pieces lauded by critics and audiences alike.
Of course, this isn’t to say Studio Ghibli deserves to have its style ripped off in unintended ways. As a creator myself, I don’t condone content theft of any kind.
The point is just that— classifying this as theft damaging to the Ghibli brand or box office revenue is a stretch.
This trend on the small screens will affect Ghibli's work as much as an online fan fiction might affect the sales or perception of a novel.
And who is to say, that this is doing more damage than good for Ghibli.
No publicity is bad publicity. While it is hard to judge how much the Studio may have earned from this trend, it is certainly not insignificant.
So, the comments by purists do not resonate with me. But also…
No, AI Art Isn’t Cheapening Real Art
An average person is assumed ignorant of art. Westerners are not expected to care about art from a “strange island” called Japan.
Still, in most cases, the public can be trusted that they will be able to tell genuine Ghibli art apart from its uninspired copies.
In fact, Miyazaki and others at Studio Ghibli may want to count their blessings that this trend came at the infancy of AI tech— when video is still at the horizon.
A trend is just that— A trend. It comes as quickly as it goes and rarely returns in the same form.
Using AI tools to convert images is, therefore, just a trend for most of the internet, and will forget about this even before the media settles on calling this trend as Ghiblified or Ghiblivised. That is to say, long before the next Ghibli release.
It’s the other studios, like the aforementioned ones, that might want to brace themselves as they inevitably come next in line.
Rest assured, any organisation is an easy target for lawsuits and other such forms of oppression to expression if Ghibli ever gets any ideas about suing OpenAI. They’ll be wise to keep in mind, though-
Trying to stop the internet from doing something that isn’t illegal usually has the opposite effect.
Then again, as some are pointing out, these self-proclaimed animation purists or Ghibli connoisseurs might just want to strengthen their status as one rather than actually care about the art landscape and AI’s effects on it.
Inspired Artwork Is Nothing New
A freelance artist can be easily hired online to make you pieces inspired by other styles for more than a decade now.
Granted, it took skill and at least a few hours even for the best of the best, and it still does. But it wasn’t unheard of.
AI has just turned what took hours earlier into minutes now.
Earlier it used to cost money. Now it costs your data.
So AI tools are not doing anything that wasn’t possible before. Yet.
If anything, this serves as another wake-up call for artists. They need to embrace AI, utilising it to enhance their work rather than fight and see it as the enemy.
AI won't replace you. People using AI will.
No Winners
This is a battle both sides seem to be losing.
While Studio Ghibli might understandably be frustated by this, ChatGPT and Grok, the supposed winners, also aren’t too keen on this trend.
Sam Altman, Open AI’s CEO, recently urged ChatGPT users to "chill out" on generating Ghibli-style images, as the viral trend has overwhelmed the company's servers and exhausted its team.
Grok, the one “broke” people are resorting to, also had a similar comment about overloading, itself informing a user of the stress it is facing.
As a daily AI user myself, feeling the heat of this trend in the form of being rate limited, I can’t say I am a fan of this craze either.
So to the people reading this still participating in this trend— maybe heed Altman’s advice and slow down?
Further Related Reading-
Why China can be a superpower- but won’t be anytime soon.
The rush to build the next super app- Everything you need as a founder is right here.
Spending time with the units of time- How Romans shaped our pretty illogical calendar.
I agree. People complaining about AI would have my sympathy if they were blowing smoke signals to make their point. There is an irony in them using a smartphone to complain about a new emerging tech replacing a human.