Ghibli-style AI-generated ...

Written : 2025-04-09 14:00:00 KST

by Ian W 이안 더불유



[Features reporter] Ghibli-style AI-generated portrait boom; new wave in art scene?


Kun-woo, I remember you said you've been stuck choosing your new profile picture. What's making it such a tough decision? Well, it's because I've been up to turning myself into all sorts of adorable animated characters using generative AI, so choosing just one has been tough. I'm pretty sure you've seen a lot of your friends doing the same, changing their pictures to AI-generated characters, especially in the popular Ghibli style, as it's been quite the trend lately.

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be up to ~에 달려 있다

Ghibli style 일본 애니메이션스튜디오 지브리의 작품에서 볼 수 있는 독특한 스타일.

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But before I tell you more, let's take a look at how this trend is unfolding. Social media is buzzing with Studio Ghibli-style portraits -not of actual characters but of real people transformed using generative AI. The global trend has also reached South Korea after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted his own version last month, showing how ChatGPT can now create intricate images with just simple prompts. "Whenever I open social media, it's flooded with these Ghibli-style images.

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intricate[ ˈɪntrɪkət ] (여러 부분·내용으로 되어 있어) 복잡한

prompts (배우가 대사를 잊었을 때) 대사를 상기시켜 주는 말

프롬프트(운영 체제에서 사용자에게 보내지는 메시지)

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A lot of my friends have tried them, some even shared their wedding photos in that style." Since the launch of the new image-generation tool in late March, over 700 million images were created, in just the first week. "This is my original photo, and I asked to be turned into a Ghibli character—and boom, two minutes later, here I am. And it's not just this but you can also turn into characters like Pororo or Marvel heroes. No wonder it’s gone viral."

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As the craze spreads, Sam Altman even joked on social media that "our GPUs are melting." However, the trend has also had backlash. A Japanese animation director known for "One Piece" expressed strong distaste, saying the trend is tarnishing the Ghibli brand. And Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki previously condemned AI-generated work as "an insult to life itself" adding that he would never use it in his pieces. Copyright concerns are also fueling the controversy.

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craze [kreɪz](특히 일시적인) 대유행[열풍] (=fad)

backlash (사회 변화 등에 대한 대중의) 반발

tarnish [ˈtɑːrnɪʃ] 흐려지다[변색되다]; 흐리게 하다, 변색시키다

(평판을) 더럽히다[손상시키다]

condemn 비난하다

insult 모욕

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"Art styles and aesthetics are considered ideas, so the case is hard to judge whether it's violating copyrights. The issue is whether an AI company trained its model on works in the Ghibli style." She added that because this is a legal grey area with not much precedent, international and social consensus will be crucial moving forward. Despite the controversy, some believe this could be a new turning point in the culture and art scene.

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aesthetics [ esθétiks ] 미학; 심미감[심]의 연구

legal grey area 법률상 애매한[어중간한] 영역

precedent [ˈpresɪdənt] 전례, 판례

consensus 의견일치, 합의

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"The art world faces what's called "Baumol's cost disease" -rising labor costs without matching productivity. And hand-drawn animation is extremely labor-intensive. Ghibli, for example, hasn't released a new film since 2014. But AI could ease that burden and enable new creations while preserving the original identity." She also said that with proper consensus, AI-generated art could evolve into a new cultural movement, perhaps even gaining long-term value, much like Van Gogh's paintings did posthumously.

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Baumol's disease 보몰병(교육, 복지 등 노동집약형 서비스 비용 증가폭이 인플레율을 크게 웃도는 비정상적 경제상태; 미국 경제학자 William Baumol이 체계화).

cost 비용, 경비

labor-intensive 노동 집약적인

posthumously [pɑ́stʃuməsli] 죽은 뒤에, 사후(死後)에

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And considering that, a tiny Ghibli-style AI portrait might just be the spark, redrawing the entire canvas of modern art. And Kun-woo since you mentioned that AI art could be reshaping the art world, can you tell us more about that? Of course. What we're seeing on social media is not just limited to Ghibli-style portraits but also other artworks created by so-called "AI artists." For those unfamiliar with them, one of the artists I spoke to explained how they create their art pieces.

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spark 기폭제, 발화 장치

redraw 변경[수정]하다

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"With my own philosophy, I apply several prompts and combine generated images to make them my own. That's why it isn't that different from traditional art work, just the tools that we use are different. And it's not just an image generated in one-go, it takes several attempts and a lot of trial and error." She added that it could take hundreds of instances of "retouching" in order to create a unique artwork. Her goal is to build a new art scene where artists collaborate with AI as their tool, instead of brushes that artists would have usually used and said it will be able to make art even more valuable.

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one-go 모두 함께, 한꺼번에

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Kun-woo, while AI-generated images are difficult to define as copyright infringement for now, I heard there are still some related cases that could lead to legal consequences. That's right. Recently, as AI-generated portraits have grown in popularity, some people have tried selling them or offering to create them for others on secondhand market platforms to make profit. One lawyer I spoke to said in such cases, it could be punishable by law.

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define 규정하다, 분명히 밝히다

legal consequences 법적 결과

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"Although AI-generated portraits may not qualify as copyrighted work now—since they aren't considered creations that reflect human thoughts or emotions—profiting from them could still be problematic under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, as it could be seen as commercially exploiting someone else’s achievements." So to recap, while simply creating or changing your image with AI seems fine for now, trying to make profit from it could lead to serious legal trouble. Thank you Kun-woo.

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creation 창작물

the Unfair Competition Prevention Act 부정 경쟁 방지법

recap 재생 시키다

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영어 원문 출처 및 동영상 링크;

arirang news/Life/Culture

https://m.arirang.com/news/view?id=282351