Could Studio Ghibli AI images be made illegal? Japanese lawmakers consider 'Ghiblification' and copyright

They’ve been all over the internet in recent weeks, but AI-generated artwork in the style of Studio Ghibli (the animation studio behind films such as My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away) could soon be considered illegal by Japanese lawmakers.

After the trend took off in March, Sam Altman of OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT – said the company would be introducing temporary rate limits as an influx of requests ended up “melting” its GPUs or graphics processing units.

And we imagine the animation studio’s founder, 84-year-old Hayao Miyazaki, isn’t happy with the current phenomenon, as comments he made about AI in a 2016 documentary resurfaced last month.

In the film, titled Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki says: “Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted.

“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”

And now, the issue has made its way to the Japanese legislature, with Dexerto reporting that it was raised in a meeting of the House of Representatives’ Cabinet Committee on Wednesday.

Masato Imai, of the Constitutional Democratic Party, asked Hirohiko Nakahara, director-general for education, culture, sports, science and technology strategy: “There has been discussion of whether the so-called ‘Ghiblification’, making AI-generated images in the Ghibli style, constitutes copyright violation.

“Under the current interpretation of the law, just how legal is it?”

Nakahara responded: “Ultimately, that is something for the courts to decide. If it is only a matter of the style or ideas being similar, then it would not be considered copyright infringement.

“If AI-generated content is determined to be similar to or reliant on preexisting copyrighted works, then there is a possibility that it could constitute copyright infringement.”

No official legislation has been introduced yet which takes aim at the ChatGPT trend, but the fact it’s gaining the attention of lawmakers is making headlines…

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