AI art has had its constant dips into controversy within social media since it started being used. However, as of recent events, many more people have come to terms with its more concerning affects.
As part of a trend online, online AI system ChatGPT uploaded a new feature that allowed anyone to upload an image from their camera roll, and give it a filter to represent an adjacent look to the animation style of the Japanese company Studio Ghibli, known for their films such as “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and “Princess Mononoke.” However, while many used this filter to show different portions of their lives, others were keen to point out the obvious dangers of this usage, that further presents the dangers of AI art use within our world.
Not only is this art soulless within its intent, as it simply mocks the style of an animation studio full of hard workers and visionaries, but it completely goes against the ideals of Studio Ghibli’s co-founder and honorary chairman, Hayao Miyazaki, who has been avidly against AI usage for his movies. Specifically, in a video uploaded by “Manhattan Project For a Nuclear-Free World” , he was shown a tech-demo for the potential use of AI within animation. It presented several 3d models performing certain movements inside of an empty room including dancing, and wiggling around on the floor. After the video finished, Miyazaki replied with this.
“Every morning, not recent days, but I see my friend who has a disability,” Miyazaki said. “It is so hard for him to just do a high five, his arm with stiff muscle reaching out to my hand. Now, thinking of him, I cannot watch this stuff and find interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is or whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted, if you really want to make creepy stuff, 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.”
The time, hard work, and mental strength it takes to create animated movies can take years, and it is as emotionally and physically exhausting as it is gratifying, in a way that only those animators, producers, and other workers can accurately describe. However, the ChatGPT filter is something that can be generated within seconds, which destroys that gratification. While it is faster, it completely takes away the aspect of what makes Ghibli movies so powerful, the dedication to the art itself. It only makes this new trend seem like a move of disrespect towards the studio and Miyazaki after decades of hard work.
Because of this and so many more different examples of it breaching the creation of art, the power of artificial intelligence for things such as creative media has proven itself to not be ethical in nearly any way. While it does allow for certain ideas to be given a nearly infinite scope of unique visuals with a single typed out prompt, the cost of it takes so much more than many may realize, including the humanity and beauty behind art and creativity.
AI art creates the possibility of people in the future to lose their sense of creativity with the ability to generate anything they want on different softwares across the internet. Andres Fortino describes this in his article from the New York University site.
“One of the foremost challenges is preserving the artist’s unique voice and authenticity. AI-generated content might sometimes dominate the creative process, losing the artist’s individuality and emotional depth in the final artwork.”
If this dominance of the creative process continues, art will not be created to its fullest potential, with AI taking a full role in the creative process.
“Relying too heavily on AI-generated elements can hinder an artist’s own creative skills. Artists might become dependent on AI for ideas, stifling their ability to innovate and think critically.”
This will also create greater risks for artists, animators, etc., within the industries that heavily rely on them, now with the potential of AI being enough to take the rolls of these jobs. We have already seen this in stores, with there being promoted products such as storybooks, present bags, and other various decorations with AI designs.
While the idea of computers doing more work for humans has helped in a vast amount of aspects of our lives, it has been used consistently for the wrong purpose when it comes to art. When it is used to create the programming for various editing tools an artist can use to enhance what they are making, we see AI actually helping our artists by speeding up the process, but to a minimal degree. But when it becomes the art itself, it takes over the roll of the artist completely.
This new “trend” of mocking Ghibli art not only is a disrespectful move towards Miyazaki and the animators and artists who work at Studio Ghibli, but is another sneer at artists all across the world who dedicate time and physical work to their craft, and to put it in simpler terms, their lifetime hobbies. AI should be used in order to create tools that help artists, not completely numb their roles within the industries that need them.