As social media platforms continue to buzz with AI-generated visuals in classic Ghibli-style, an old video of the Japanese studio’s founder Hayao Miyazaki slamming machine-made artworks as an “insult to life” is going viral.
Earlier this week, ChatGPT launched its latest model GPT4o, which lets free, Plus and Pro users to generate high-quality pictures in Ghibli’s signature style with the help of a single prompt. This led to a meme fest online with users reimagining their favourite moments in the dreamy, hand-painted fashion of Ghibli films.
In the old clip, from a 2016 NHK documentary, Miyazaki says that AI cannot understand the pain and emotions that humans feel while creating a piece of art.
The video shows a group of animators and tech specialists presenting Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki and Miyazaki with their latest AI model that can animate images through the human movements it has learnt.
The animators played a sequence on the screen featuring a terrifying zombie created by their AI model. They said that the machine can produce creepy, unnatural movements like the one on the screen, which can be used for horror games and other related genres.
Miyazaki, however, wasn’t impressed by the work. The 84-year-old ace director referred to his friend with a disability who faces difficulty in showing basic gestures such as a high-five because of his stiff muscles. Recalling his friend’s struggle to find the strength to go about his daily life despite his condition, Miyazaki said that it pains him to watch the AI-generated video and find it interesting.
“Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all,” he said, adding, “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
Studio Ghibli, known for its quiet, contemplative and hand-drawn animation, was launched by Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Tokuma Shoten back in 1985. Miyazaki has two Oscars to his name — one for Spirited Away (2001) and another for The Boy and the Heron (2024).
The viral video has reignited a debate on creativity and artificial intelligence, with Ghibli fans arguing that the trend goes against Miyazaki’s philosophy of his studio.
“To unironically admire AI-generated Ghibli art is to disregard the very essence of craftsmanship. The years of dedication, the meticulous hand-drawn frames, the emotional weight Miyazaki infused into every scene, reduced to a soulless algorithmic output,” reads a post by the Global Community of Creative Professionals and Culture Enthusiasts on Instagram.
“The tragedy isn’t just that AI is replicating art, it’s that people are willing to celebrate its hollow imitations over the deeply human craft of animation,” they added.