Earlier this week, OpenAI (the maker of ChatGPT) introduced a new AI image-generation tool, billed as its most advanced to date. How do you get the public invested in such a tool? You allow them to turn themselves into their own anime avatars, of course – specifically, avatars in the much-beloved style of Studio Ghibli.

As a result, social media has been flooded with cute cartoons against gorgeously ‘hand-painted’ backdrops over the last few days. The demand for Ghibli-esque portraits is so great, in fact, that the company has had to delay access to the tool for customers using its free tier. “Images in chatgpt are wayyyy more popular than we expected,” writes CEO Sam Altman. “(and we had pretty high expectations).”

Notably, Altman himself has also Ghiblified his profile picture, which now looks like a main character from the likes of Kiki’s Delivery Service or Castle in the Sky. Commenting on the reaction to the viral trend, he writes: “>be me / >grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever / >mostly no one cares for first 7.5 years, then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything / >wake up one day to hundreds of messages: ‘look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha’.”

Of course, it’s not all anime makeovers and cute pet portraits. Despite some restrictions on the kind of content you can feed into the generator, many users have also turned other scenes into Ghibli masterpieces, from popular memes to national tragedies.

Others have pointed out that the trend is obvious propaganda for a company that’s also accelerating a reckless AI arms race and propping up US military interests (despite previously instating a blanket ban on use for “military and warfare”). Altman himself has admitted: “believe it or not we put a lot of thought into the initial examples we show when we introduce new technology.” Then, there’s the question of what happens with the data you willingly feed into its machines, on top of their debatable environmental impact.

Of all OpenAI’s critics, though, it seems clear that one stands above and beyond all the rest. Yes, we’re talking about Studio Ghibli’s very own Hayao Miyazaki. Back in 2016, the animation master was shown a demonstration of AI-powered animation at a media company in Japan. “This is an example of fast movement that we had the model learn,” one of the ‘innovators’ tells him. “It’s moving by using its head. It doesn’t feel any pain.” Luckily for us, Miyazaki’s response to the showcase of “grotesque” character modelling techniques was captured on film.

“I can’t watch this stuff and find [it] interesting,” the filmmaker says in the clip, contrasting the computer’s movements with those of a friend with a physical disability. “Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is… I am utterly disgusted.”

“I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all,” he continues. “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” Cut to: an image of the speechless technologists. Many look like they’re on the verge of tears. “This is just our experiment,” one man finally protests, but it’s clear that there’s no changing the Studio Ghibli legend’s mind. 

Presumably, a lot of self-reflection happened after that fateful meeting. In fact, we could arguably do with a bit more of that self-reflection today. Before we go any further with AI, let’s ship Miyazaki over to Silicon Valley, and have its biggest brains present them with their best work. It might just save the world.