The Ghibli wave has taken the world by storm so much so that the creators asked users to slow down the pace at which the images are being generated. The artificial intelligence-generated portraits mimic the signature style of Ghibli legend Hayao Miyazaki’s iconic studio. The movies were originally launched by ChatGPT this trend has now been adapted by various platforms including Elon Musk’s Grok, allowing users to create Ghibli-inspired images for free. To name a few platforms LunaPic, Prisma, PhotoFunia, BeFunky, Fotor, Flux, etc. Bollywood hit films, memes on the Internet, and even personal photos are being reconstructed with the soft watercolours and hand-drawn charm of a Ghibli movie.
Seattle-based software engineer Grant Slatton was one of the initial users who ignited the fire for Ghibli-styled images as he posted on his X account with his wife & dog.
tremendous alpha right now in sending your wife photos of yall converted to studio ghibli anime pic.twitter.com/FROszdFSfN
— Grant Slatton (@GrantSlatton) March 25, 2025
Like any other trend not floating in the same boat makes people feel left out so before we know it all are on the same boat. It is only when the wave settles down a bit that people ponder over what exactly happened. Now the population by and large have generated countless numbers of images that digital activists are raising alarm about the photographic data that has been shared all over the net. There are claims that this data can potentially be used as a way to gather images for AI training which might lead to serious privacy concerns.
Not just this, it also raised ethical concerns about AI being trained for copyrighted creative works and how it might affect the human artists sort of devaluing their importance.
This OpenAI’s data collection strategy goes beyond AI copyright issues. Activists argue that the company is bypassing legal restrictions on web-scraped data by acquiring voluntarily submitted images. As users are willingly uploading images, OpenAI can process them under “consent,” avoiding stricter legal tests.
This raises critical questions: Are users fully aware of how their data is being used, or is this another case of vague consent agreements benefiting big tech? AI is not just copying the photographs but making changes to it according to its understanding leading to some exceptionally beautiful pictures and some really funny outputs.
Who is Hayao Miyazaki, the man behind Studio Ghibli?
He is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli which gave the world masterpieces like ‘Spirited Away’, ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, and ‘Princess Mononoke’. His movie ‘Spirited Away’ made it to the trophy for the first non-English animated feature at the Academy Awards.
Hayao Miyazaki, unlike others, stuck to the original art of hand-drawn animation believing it to be full of warmth and soul. According to Hayao Miyazaki any unique art form such as this one should be preserved in its original form as such interventions take away the real essence from it.
Ironically, Hayao Miyazaki once condemned AI-generated content as an “affront to life.” Yet, today, AI can replicate the studio’s intricate hand-drawn aesthetic in seconds—something that traditionally takes artists years.
How could the AI-fiction of random things affect the future?
It is definitely concerning as things that one would just imagine are now a reality. The technology has started to mimic artists, giving results in a short span with customised changes. The future seems to be different than what it was imagined to be. It is helpful many a time but this could be an end to many human-driven work. This makes one think if the concept of creativity, uniqueness, and copyright would ever attract people.
As the Ghibli trend fades, the world will wake up to the far-reaching consequences of AI in art and content creation — a change that, while inevitable, is as terrifying as it is transformative. Modernisation is bound to happen but should it always mean that authentic concepts would lose their essence? Not always as we might be using e-books. But have they eliminated original hard copies? No, each holds its importance.
But till we find out, don’t forget to immerse yourselves in the world of Ghibli – one image at a time.
