If you’ve been on the internet this past week, you undoubtedly know that controversy was just kicked up a notch by the Studio Ghibli memes — pictures cribbing the style of the legendary Japanese film studio.

There are many debates on the ethics of generating AI images, especially against the vocal anti-AI opinions of Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. Despite this, the fusion of internet culture with Studio Ghibli’s art style continues to engage and entertain people on social media worldwide.

OpenAI released a new version of their image generation technology, and people are using it to recreate memes in the style of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio behind acclaimed films like Spirited Away, The Boy and The Heron, and The Wind Rises.

Users quickly began making the most of the policy change — sharing “Ghiblified” images of 9/11, Adolf Hitler, and the murder of George Floyd. The official White House account on X even shared a Studio Ghibli-style image of an ICE officer detaining an alleged illegal immigrant.

The frenzy to create Ghibli-style art using ChatGPT has sparked a heated debate about the ethical concerns of AI-generated art, copyright issues and the future livelihoods of artists.

Chat GPT-4o's image generator has bolstered Studio Ghibli-style AI art. The trend is resurfacing Hayao Miyazaki's comments on AI.

A wave of Studio Ghibli-inspired images has taken over social media after OpenAI’s latest update to its ChatGPT-4o model.