Ghibli-style AI-generated portrait boom; new wave in art scene?

If you're active on social media, you've probably come across one of these Ghibli-style portraits that are AI-generated.

Our Park Kun-woo tells us more about the craze as well as the potential issues with the craze.

Social media is buzzing with Studio Ghibli-style portraits -not of actual characters but of real people transformed using generative AI.

The global trend has also reached South Korea after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted his own version last month, showing how ChatGPT can now create intricate images with just simple prompts.

"Whenever I open social media, it's flooded with these Ghibli-style images. A lot of my friends have tried them, some even shared their wedding photos in that style."

Since the launch of the new image-generation tool in late March, over 700 million images were created, in just the first week.

"This is my original photo, and I asked to be turned into a Ghibli character—and boom, two minutes later, here I am. And it's not just this but you can also turn into characters like Pororo or Marvel heroes. No wonder it's gone viral."

As the craze spreads, Sam Altman even joked on social media that "our GPUs are melting."

However, the trend has also had backlash.

A Japanese animation director known for "One Piece" expressed strong distaste, saying the trend is tarnishing the Ghibli brand.

And Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki previously condemned AI-generated work as "an insult to life itself" adding that he would never use it in his pieces.

Copyright concerns are also fueling the controversy.

"Art styles and aesthetics are considered ideas, so the case is hard to judge whether it's violating copyrights. The issue is whether an AI company trained its model on works in the Ghibli style."

She added that because this is a legal grey area with not much precedent, international and social consensus will be crucial moving forward.

Despite the controversy, some believe this could be a new turning point in the culture and art scene.

"The art world faces what's called "Baumol's cost disease" -rising labor costs without matching productivity. And hand-drawn animation is extremely labor-intensive. Ghibli, for example, hasn't released a new film since 2014. But AI could ease that burden and enable new creations while preserving the original identity."

She also said that with proper consensus, AI-generated art could evolve into a new cultural movement, perhaps even gaining long-term value, much like Van Gogh's paintings did posthumously.

And considering that, a tiny Ghibli-style AI portrait might just be the spark, redrawing the entire canvas of modern art.

Park Kun-woo, Arirang News.