OpenAI’s rollout of a new image generation feature in ChatGPT has sparked a viral trend of Studio Ghibli-style images that has overwhelmed the company’s servers. Within 24 hours of the feature’s release, social media platforms were flooded with AI-generated images mimicking the distinctive style of the famous Japanese animation studio.
The new image generation capability, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, allows users to recreate existing images in different artistic styles by simply uploading a photo and typing a text prompt. Users have been creating Studio Ghibli versions of everything from politicians like Donald Trump to characters from “The Lord of the Rings,” with even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman changing his profile picture to a Ghibli-style image.
Server capacity issues
The unexpected popularity of the image generation feature has caused significant technical problems for OpenAI. According to CEO Sam Altman, “our GPUs are melting” due to the overwhelming number of requests. The company has been forced to implement temporary rate limits on image generation to manage demand, though Altman indicated these restrictions would hopefully be short-lived.
Furthermore, OpenAI has delayed the rollout of the feature to free-tier users, who will eventually be limited to generating three images per day when the capability becomes available to them.
Copyright concerns
This viral moment has also reignited discussions about copyright issues in AI-generated content. Although style itself is not explicitly protected by copyright law, intellectual property lawyer Evan Brown notes that OpenAI likely trained its model on copyrighted materials, including possibly millions of frames from Studio Ghibli films.
The legal implications remain unclear, with several ongoing lawsuits against AI companies including OpenAI, Meta, and Midjourney regarding the training of AI models on copyrighted works without attribution or payment.
OpenAI’s stated policy is that while ChatGPT refuses to replicate “the style of individual living artists,” it does permit replication of “broader studio styles.” Critics point out the contradiction in this stance, noting that living artists like Hayao Miyazaki are credited with pioneering Studio Ghibli’s distinctive style.
Sources: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Verge