OpenAI is using Studio Ghibli-style memes as an ad hoc promotional campaign for its new image generator—despite Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki's famous hatred of AI. Sam Altman even made his X avatar a 'Ghiblified' portrait.

Disgracing Miyazaki is part of the point: It's more proof to the industry's biggest boosters that they have won—that they're free to use, appropriate, and commoditize art however they see fit.

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/openais-studio-ghibli-meme-factory

OpenAI's Studio Ghibli meme factory is an insult to art itself

Sam Altman is promoting his new image generator by appropriating the work of one of the greatest living animators—who is "disgusted" by AI.

Blood in the Machine
I realize that language is strong, and for a long time I have been skeptical of this notion that 'AI bros hate artists' or such—but seeing the response to this critique, which on the other site really actually has too often been literally 'Fuck Miyazaki', what other conclusion are we to come to?
Here's how one artist, Reid Southen, told me he feels about the AI Studio Ghibli trend:

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Blood in the Machine | Brian Merchant | Substack

Writing and reporting on AI, tech, labor and power. For everyone Silicon Valley is happening to. Click to read Blood in the Machine, by Brian Merchant, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

@brianmerchant just to point out, the comments section on this post is pure gold. I can't remember the last time I read a thread and agreed so strongly with everything in it, and how well it was put. There are some very smart people here on Mastodon.

@brianmerchant capitalists don't comport with art as all things in this world must be tradable on a market with valuation. It's not scalable with the means of production as a commodity. Capitalists can't crank it out at scale to conquer with enough monkeys on typewriters or LLMs laboring without generating a milquetoast watered down slurry.

I keep reflecting and reading. There's something in the capitalism/private property water that's got the globe gaga.

@nicksilkey @brianmerchant this was really well said. The same way the rich turned the obscure but once meaningful worlds modern and abstract art into a meaningless money laundering scheme, the world of tech then turned their capitalist mindset to poisoning the actual art people enjoy. As above, so below.

Compare that to the Bauhaus movement, that saw positive potential in mass production and created many beautiful and valuable things.

@brianmerchant They're like a rapist's relationship to the person they're raping, they hate artists but also envy and desire them. They artist/woman must be destroyed and broken so the rapist can deny their feelings of disempowerment and unworthiness in an orgy of violence that makes them feel powerful.
@fifilamoura @brianmerchant Oh, does that ever rhyme and ring true. They desire what they can't command, so they abuse and abase instead.
@fifilamoura @brianmerchant I haven't been able to put this down and my brain has expanded on it since, if you find that useful - this toot and the one above -https://urbanists.social/@cwicseolfor/114240121617876389
cwicseolfor (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] There's another camp of users with the dim argument that once the models are built (from stolen works, taken both without compensation and against consent) it's no longer harming anyone to consume them, but I can't help but see a parallel to exploitation materials/ revenge media in that too. The people who did the theft did so with immoral recklessness or outright malice, for a reckless or malicious audience; to engage it thereafter feels anything but morally neutral.

Urbanists.Social

@fifilamoura @brianmerchant understand the concept of rape culture & you understand silicone valley, AI, the advertising industry, & pretty much all the modern woes of society.

Feminism is an expansive & all-encompassing theoretical framework, tbh it deserves to be brought back into relevance & we need it now more than ever. It shouldn't be let to languish in transphobic white-supremacist hell at the hands of JK Rowling & associates.

@brianmerchant It's not strong, it's appropriate. The snake oil people are thieves, they steal things and claim they made them.

@brianmerchant I've spent a minimal amount of time in places where artists share how you can protect your art against AI (with tools like Glaze/Nightshade) - the hate from AI bros is very real.

All they have is contempt for anyone who actually has the skills to create something meaningful.

@brianmerchant
The worst personalities religiously defend AI. Outraged by basic boundaries that apply an ounce of guilt to their reckless, unnecessary hyper-consumer wishes. Their "innocent fun" with colorful deepfakes.

They victimise themselves as disabled and have weird revenge fantasies. We all just tape bananas to walls in their head or got blessed by god. Intently ignoring that we just practiced art while other kids played games. Or that IT dudes always earned much more per default.

@brianmerchant
We also deserve no rights or "human privilege". While their apps deserve all the rights and freedom in the world, because it is just a "virtual child learning". That it doesn't operate human at all is just a forgettable detail.

AI nurtures utterly unhinged toxic vultures. People who fail at basic logic and empathy.

@brianmerchant AI bros are among the most arrogant people in the world, it's only just that someone says it out loud. It's a shame for AI, too, that LLMs and the related bubble have stained the whole field. This can only end up in another AI winter. That's a shame, since the developments besides LLMs have been generally positive.
@brianmerchant wow, ok everyone duck, Japan may declare war on Sam Altman for this
De coger ni hablar - Revista Anfibia

¿Por qué las nuevas generaciones cogen menos? Crisis económica, redes y nuevas formas de vincularse modelan el deseo sexual de los jóvenes.

Revista Anfibia

@brianmerchant The White House account is sharing fake-ghibli slop memes of crying migrants deported.

We need to turn this on them.

AI slop is created by the talentless and enjoyed by the stupid. Some smug nerd thinks he's pwning an artist because instead of learning a human skill, he created garbage for nazis and Facebook uncles?

Don't let them act like they're being snide, make them own their embarrassing taste in slop. This is the Right's art, their true concept of beauty. Laugh at them

@BoysenberryCider @brianmerchant they actually did that?! That's not only gross on an AI-vs-artists level, it's also just such bad taste in general!

@lizzard @brianmerchant

https://ioc.exchange/@jgreig/114236429821238122

Aesthetically, this is probably the foulest thing I've ever seen since seeing fried seahorses on skewers. Obviously the actual deportation is far worse, but looked at artistically, the mind who thought this was funny respects and loves nothing, not beauty, not skill, not human life.

I guess AI is art after all, the art of the stupid and the ugly. AI is their art, their culture (and if it wasn't, it is now). Erectile dysfunction of the soul.

Jon Greig (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image there is absolutely no bottom. we’re not even six months into these people being in charge

IOC.exchange
@brianmerchant @Gargron I think they are also kinda doing a ragebait campaign as marketing

@brianmerchant did they ai ghiblify the picture of miyazaki saying this is an insult to life itself

because i aint clickin that shit if they did

@vegetablegremlin @brianmerchant That is what's in the preview, yeah. Petty doesn't even come close.
@brianmerchant The fun part is where a site trying to sell AI-spew put watermarks on their pictures. Given that they are not protected by copyright unless a human made significant alterations, and that watermark removal is something AI is also used for these days.
@brianmerchant I remember watching the original video where Miyazaki discusses his disabled friend. It stuck with me because genAI and AI that implicitly or explicitly devalues human work is inherently capitalist and does not see the contributions of disabled people (or artists) as valuable. By using generative AI people are participating in and accelerating the devaluation of not only the lives and work of others, but their own.

@brianmerchant This is many things at once. First of all, this is disrespectful on so many levels. Also it shows another shift.

Before, we could say that these people played dirty. But this thing became ugly. A dark, off-putting type of ugly. It makes my stomach churn. I'm ashamed of being member of the same species with these people.

@brianmerchant Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness
@brianmerchant whe i remember correct myazaki was more disgusted by what they produced with the AI when they showed him.
@TheOneSwit @brianmerchant Many people have pointed this out to him.
@TheOneSwit @brianmerchant
"What do you intend to do with this technology?"
"Well, we would like to create a machine that can draw like humans do."
"I feel that we are nearing the end of times. Humanity is losing faith in itself."

@TapiocaPearl @TheOneSwit @brianmerchant

Everyone is using the “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” quote.
The context of Miyazaki's specific comment was specifically to the fact they were using the AI movement for "zombie games". Which already throw people with disabilities under the bus as disgusting horror monsters.

He has other quotes about it, but using that quote for AI drawings is a bit of a misattribution.

@Maverynthia @TheOneSwit @brianmerchant I've seen the video a number of times since it was released many years ago. That quote about it being an insult indeed takes place before the section I quoted. But why does he react the way he does? Because he saw the technology used in a way that betrays human intentionality, and compassion in creativity, informed by our experiences and understanding, in this case of things like pain. Context matters, but his reaction was hardly to the specific use.
@brianmerchant OpenAI is run by monsters without any shred of empathy.
@brianmerchant So, they just stole it, and even advertize that fact?
@brianmerchant I don’t know what’s more disgraceful, that you’re crassly misrepresenting Miyazaki’s words for clicks, or that you’re doing it for clicks on a Nazi platform.
@brianmerchant never saw the Myazaki response from this clip. Never heard such strong stance against not just "AI" in arts but a more general approach to grasp whats engulfing us. Could yet not be fascinated about LLM content. Soulless, if need to be described, but no wonder about that.

@brianmerchant Absolutely gross.

But it also seems almost impossible that they didn't train their AI on Studio Ghibli's work, which means, perhaps, they might have legal recourse there?

@brianmerchant The little kid in me that loves technology is ashamed of where the industry went and is going, and the adult in me is happy that he never took a silicon valley job, as he knows the little kid would have been very vulnerable to all that shit if he lived there.
@brianmerchant It fits perfectly. They don't respect art or the artist, they just want to possess it.

@brianmerchant Perhaps the best answer is the sublime Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron: maybe the best meditation on creativity I've ever seen.

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81946538?s=i&trkid=258593161&vlang=en

Watch Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron | Netflix

Animation legend Hayao Miyazaki grapples with matters of mortality and creativity during his seven-year journey making "The Boy and the Heron."

@brianmerchant The whole IA thing that frightens me the most is how easy the companies get away with the stealing of training material.

OpenAI must have used tons of Ghibli material to train it's model, similar on how Meta used milions of books to train teir LLM.

Endusers of products are limited in the use & share of material due to 'copyright infringment', while the large companies get away with this.

How does this all add up? Was there conscent from Ghibli in this matter?

@brianmerchant It's actually a pretty good pic, and it's not like they are stealing credit here, this is honoring him (Miyazaki-san might disagree!)
@brianmerchant It wouldn't hurt if they paid him money too
@brianmerchant by the way. This means they illegaly stored copies of his movies... fuck OpenAI and cuck Altman.
@brianmerchant I am not sure why Ghibli aren't suing them to oblivion. Are they biding their time or terrified?
@brianmerchant great write! there's also a lot to be said about how colonialism plays a part in all of this Derivative LLMs bullshit.
@brianmerchant ça méprise et s’arroge TOUS les droits #boycottusa y a aucune autre solution
@brianmerchant Would you mind migrating off of Substack, the nazi platform? I boosted your post until I realized where you were sending people. Can't support nazis no matter how good your content may be.

@brianmerchant It's a matter of law and regulation lagging behind technology.

We've seen the same in music and film, with services like Napster and The Pirate Bay.