On Tuesday, OpenAI updated ChatGPT with new AI image generation capabilities that make it especially good at recreating specific visual styles. People trying the new feature immediately flooded social media with images in the style of Studio Ghibli and Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, who famously called artificial intelligence “an insult to life itself.”
Miyazaki’s quote comes from a 2016 documentary in which he’s shown a demo of a 3D model whose movements are animated with AI as opposed to manually, by a human, as is usually the case in 3D animated videos or video games.
“Thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find [it] interesting,” Miyazaki says after seeing the demo, saying it reminds him of a friend with a disability. “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.”