The web is abuzz with excitement following ChatGPT’s newest AI tool, which creates images drawing inspiration from the distinctive animation style of Studio Ghibli, the famous Japanese studio co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki. The feature has been a social media sensation since its release, with users posting AI-generated images looking like they are straight from Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.
Other sites such as X (previously Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok have been filled with photos of ‘Ghiblified’ pictures, making it so that hashtags such as #GhibliArt and #Ghiblified become trending topics. The craze has caught the eyes of not just ordinary users but politicians, influencers, celebrities, and companies as well, all of whom were waiting to have some fun with the AI software.
During the viral wave, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went on X on Sunday, voicing his surprise at the sheer volume of demand. “Can yall please relax on creating images this is crazy our team needs sleep,” he tweeted, signaling the overload on OpenAI resources.
Reacting to a remark from an English-American computer scientist regarding whether “lots of people need to be awake when load is high,” Altman acknowledged, “We just haven’t been able to catch up since launch so people are still working to keep the service up… biblical demand, I have never seen anything like it.”
Even with the chaos, Altman kept users informed that OpenAI has no intention of nerfing the model. When one user said, “If you keep netfing the model, people will stop using it. Otherwise, no,” he responded, “we are gonna do the opposite of nerfing it BUT still please chill out a bit.”
As the feature’s popularity reaches new heights, it has also sparked renewed ethical issues regarding AI tools based on copyrighted original artwork. Others wonder what this holds for human artists and their careers in a world becoming more and more reliant on AI-created work.