Did Ghibli creator predict death of art a decade ago? Hayao Miyazaki's nine-year-old attack on rise of AI goes viral

It’s a deeply ironic moment —Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki, who nearly a decade ago blasted artificial intelligence as an "insult to life itself,” is now the subject of the very technology he despised.

The Ghibli style of art in Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo and more has long captured the imagination of millions, prompting even OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman to embrace it.

The so-called "Ghiblification" trend, where personal photos and memes are transformed into the distinct, hand-drawn style of Miyazaki’s iconic animations, has taken social media by storm owing to the new ChatGPT feature.


But it’s an irony that no one could have predicted when the legendary animator issued a fierce attack of AI-generated art in 2016.

Disgusted: Miyazaki’s scathing attack

Back then, Miyazaki’s outburst was blunt and emotionally charged.

"I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself," he said, referring to an AI animation demonstration presented to him, which featured an unsettling, zombie-like creature dragging itself along the ground.

The creators behind the animation argued that it was an attempt to push AI’s potential, but Miyazaki—whose artistry is steeped in empathy, understanding pain, and celebrating the human spirit—saw it as a betrayal of what makes art meaningful.

In that moment, Miyazaki's words echoed loudly, capturing his fear that AI art would strip away the very soul of creation.

"I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is,” he said. “I am utterly disgusted," he added, before concluding, "I feel like we are nearing the end of times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.”

The digital Ghibli storm

Fast forward to today, and the world has caught up to the AI he once dismissed with such vehemence—except this time, it's not grotesque zombie animations but whimsical, beautifully rendered Ghibli-style portraits filling social media feeds.

Thanks to a new version of ChatGPT, fans have been able to transform everything from internet memes to their own selfies into dreamy, Miyazaki-inspired art.

And while the images are undeniably charming, the ethical and philosophical questions that Miyazaki raised all those years ago continue to remain front and centre.

AI's undeniable allure

The ChatGPT trend’s widespread appeal shows just how much the allure of AI art is growing, with companies like OpenAI promoting these tools and encouraging further experimentation with the aesthetics of famous creators.

The fascination has extended so far that Altman himself changed his X handle profile picture to an AI-generated Ghibli image.

Silence from Ghibli

But while the world gets caught up in the magic of AI-generated Ghibli images, Studio Ghibli itself remains notably silent.

The studio, which has built its empire on the painstaking artistry of hand-drawn animation, has not commented on this latest AI development, leaving fans and critics alike to wonder what Miyazaki would think of this latest twist in the AI art saga.

His aversion to AI art, which once seemed like an impassioned, old-world defence of human creativity, now feels like a prophetic warning.

As AI becomes more ingrained in the world of art, one has to wonder if the things that Miyazaki cherished—soulful, human-driven storytelling—are being lost in a flood of machine-generated perfection.