ChatGPT plays Ghibli well: Will genuine originality suffer?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Ever since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, this chatbot has wormed its way into every other conversation with its wonders of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Over the past week, an online frenzy to post photos in the animation style of Japan’s Studio Ghibli has seen this tool’s usage surge.

If people aren’t ‘ghiblifying’ their photographs—feeding a picture into ChatGPT, i.e., and getting imagery that mimics the beautifully hand-drawn style of Hayao Miyazaki’s iconic studio—they’re busy debating the pros and cons of doing so. Some bemoan a loss of creativity and view it as open plagiarism, while others envision art being democratized by this embrace of technology and celebrate the fun it inspires. Neither side will win this argument, which is as old as the printing press, if not older.

Ethical concerns about the use of GenAI remain, the biggest being whether art produced by humans is fair game for AI models to be trained on. It also raises questions about the meaning of ‘original’ art and what GenAI means for creativity. How these are resolved could have a bigger impact than it may seem at first brush.

If art and creativity take a blow from GenAI adoption, the after-effects could run deep and wide. While the popular image of an artist as a person with a paint-brush and easel persists, creative industries encompass everything from advertising, gaming, performing arts and fashion design to craft, publishing and cinema. Apart from their pursuit of lofty purposes, such as effecting a shift in view that makes the world a better place, artistic efforts generate hard economic value.