AI art in Studio Ghibli

Jumping into bed, I go to respond to a message from my friend on Instagram, but see a video on my feed that catches my eye. In the video, a girl shows how she asked Artificial Intelligence (AI) to turn her photos into Studio Ghibli style portraits. Feeling shocked, I go to check the comments, hoping that there are people who can see how harmful this is to the artists. Instead, I am bombarded with comments saying "amazing" and "super."

For me, ever since I discovered Studio Ghibli, their movies have played a major role in my life. I remember my first time watching Howls Moving Castle and being in shock at how beautiful the art was. After only five minutes of watching it, I had to pause. The love the artists and writers had for producing the movie was radiating off the screen. I could feel the love that they had for making it. This is what makes Studio Ghibli so amazing. In another movie, The Wind Rises, they took one year and three months to animate a 4 second scene. In this scene, people are running in chaos after their town was hit with an earthquake. The reason this scene took so long to film was because Studio Ghibli wanted to show each character's different personality through their movements alone. This type of dedication is truly beautiful, and shows how art can be used to express so much more than what meets the eye.

Recently, there has been a new trend gaining more and more prominence on social media: making studio ghibli art with AI. I believe that this is a negative and harmful thing to do. I believe that it is inconsiderate and crosses both a moral and an ethical line. This use of AI, not only with Studio Ghiblis, but with other forms of art is replacing and devaluing human expression.

In Studio Ghibli's case, animator and director, Hayao Miyazaki, the use of AI discredits him as an artist. What makes Miyazaki's art so phenomenal is that he sees art as something that is deeply connected to human emotion, empathy, and experience. His stories aren't just meant to entertain the people watching them - they are meant to evoke emotion. In the 2016 NHK documentary "Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki", a clip has recently gone viral of Miyazaki breaking-down into tears when shown a demo of an AI-generated animation project. After viewing it, he said, "I strongly feel that this (AI art) is an insult to life itself." He worded my thoughts perfectly.

While some may say that the use of AI allows animated movies to be produced faster, this doesn't matter when there is now no meaning to the art. I would rather a film take 3 years to produce rather than one that used AI but only took 3 months. I feel like people's attention spans have gone down since the rise of social media and they want things faster than ever, even when it comes at the cost of quality. People need to be able to appreciate art more, or this will continue to happen.

Art is not meant to be computer generated. It is supposed to be made from humans who have varying perspectives and can show that through their art. In Studio Ghibli's case, it is very sad to see this is happening and there is not much talk about it. This shows the importance of not following trends blindly, but researching them before participating. I understand the use of AI when it comes to mathematical and scientific reasons, but when it comes to replacing human expression - I don't understand why people are so obsessed with doing this.

I hope that after reading this people will be more informed about the decisions they make regarding AI. People are in charge of making sure this doesn't happen. It is their hands to stop this.

Story by Lillian Coffin