OpenAI’s new update to ChatGPT allows users to generate eerily beautiful Ghibli-style images, and the internet has found itself swept up in nostalgia and whimsy. But while these AI-generated creations go viral, an old video of Hayao Miyazaki — co-founder of Japan’s legendary Studio Ghibli — has resurfaced online, offering a stark, emotional contrast.
The clip, now widely shared across platforms like X, captures a moment of deep discomfort and quiet fury from the acclaimed filmmaker behind Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro, as noted by NDTV.
In the video, a group of young designers present a zombie-like animation created by an AI engine, boasting of its grotesque, surreal movements. One of them explains that such visuals — impossible for humans to conceive — could revolutionise horror video games.
But Miyazaki does not see novelty. He sees something disturbingly hollow. Recalling a close friend with a physical disability, he compares the animation’s jerky, inhuman movements to his friend’s painful struggles with basic gestures.
“Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever,” he says. “I am utterly disgusted… I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
He tells FarOut Magazine he would never incorporate such technology into his work — a line that now reverberates louder than ever in an era of AI-driven creativity.
The clip, originally from a Studio Ghibli meeting, also features producer Toshio Suzuki questioning the team’s intentions. When asked what they hoped to achieve, one designer simply responds: to make a machine that could draw like a human.
As NDTV highlights, the latest GPT-4o model, with integrated image generation, is responsible for this viral trend, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even reportedly using a new Ghibli-style image as his new profile picture. A curious moment in tech, art, and soul.
