Studio Ghibli Boss’ Criticism of ‘Insulting’ AI Goes Viral Amid New ChatGPT Trend

A re-discovered video of Hayao Miyazaki, a co-founder of Studio Ghibli, denouncing AI technology has gone viral and sparked a new internet discussion.

 The footage, which was taken during a conference in 2016, shows Miyazaki’s visibly disgusted reaction after seeing an AI-generated animation of a zombie-like thing dragging itself over the floor.  According to the presenter, such technology may be utilized to produce unimaginably hideous movements, which could then be employed in horror video games.

Image Courtesy: NDTV 

Unimpressed, Miyazaki rejected the idea completely, calling it an insult to life itself and claiming that he found it extremely unsettling. The clip has reappeared as fans of Studio Ghibli, which was founded in 1985 by Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki, are using AI-powered tools, especially OpenAI’s new GPT-4o model, to recreate images in the iconic animation studio’s signature style. 

‘Spirited Away’, ‘Princess Mononoke’, and ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ are just a few of the studio’s most well-loved animated films. Their most recent film, ‘The Boy and the Heron’ (2023), featured an English-language voice cast that included Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Mark Hamill, and Christian Bale.

—Farheen Ali