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Journalism of Courage
WHY NOW?
AI chatbot ChatGPT upgraded its 4o model on Tuesday (March 25) to include native image generation capabilities, featuring a “natively multimodal model capable of precise, accurate, photorealistic outputs.” Users have replicated various popular artistic styles, most notably the distinctive animation of Studio Ghibli.
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1985 by legendary animators Hayao Miyazaki, director Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki. Its films feature hand-drawn, vivid frames with a rich colour palette and acrylic paints, with minimal use of computer techniques.
The word ‘ghibli’ is Italian for “hot wind blowing through the Sahara Desert”. It refers to Italian scouting aeroplanes during World War II. Miyazaki, named the studio after his love of planes and Italy.
The films are also known for their complex storytelling, featuring young characters – often girls or women – in extraordinary situations and original, fantastic creatures. The films are progressive, featuring themes of feminism, an aversion to war, environmentalism, and family.
Two films from the studio – Spirited Away (2001) and The Boy and The Heron (2023) won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Five other films have also been nominated for the Oscars.
The studio has worked on 25 films (production and/or animation) and created TV specials, commercials, short films and video games.
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator and filmmaker, known as the face of Studio Ghibli. A 2011 essay in the German newspaper Der Spiegel called him the “Asian Walt Disney” and “Japan’s most significant contemporary film director.”
Born in 1941 in Tokyo, he witnessed the effects of World War II and described some of his earliest memories as those of “bombed-out cities” in his book Starting Point: 1979 to 1996.
He studied economics and political science before embarking on a career as an animator in 1963, favouring the manga style of Japanese animation. Miyazaki initially struggled to draw people and spent years drawing planes, battleships and tanks, all of which have found their way into his films.
In 2014, Miyazaki was given an honorary Award at the Academy’s Governors Awards.
Miyazaki has expressed strong reservations about using AI to create art. In 2016, Miyazaki said he was disgusted by AI-generated animation and called it an “insult to life itself”.
The animator was shown a clip of an AI-animated zombie, which the presenter described as a form of grotesque dancing. “Artificial intelligence could present us (with) grotesque movements that we humans can’t imagine,” the presenter said.
Miyazaki responded by saying the clip reminded him of a disabled friend who could not move his muscles without experiencing severe pain, or give him a high-five.
“Thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find (it) interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself,” he said.
With rapid developments in AI, questions of creativity and ownership have also emerged. Questions on what it means for a studio to have a particular style, and what happens when thousands of people may use technology to re-create it, are yet to receive definitive answers.
