In late March 2025, social media became inundated with a viral new trend thanks to ChatGPT’s image generator going public for all users, which took the internet by storm almost immediately. Folks flocked to the AI with requests to recreate photos of themselves as Studio Ghibli characters in a fad that was impossible to

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.

OpenAI's new image generator sparked a meme frenzy and a debate about copyright. Some argue Sam Altman's company is exploiting artists' work.

Over the past week, OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, announced major developments, including a $40 billion funding deal with Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and the viral launch of its Ghibli-themed image generation feature. However, despite these bullish catalysts, Worldcoin (WLD) price plummeted 21% to $0.70, raising concerns among investors.

In my opinion, OpenAI has sidelined Microsoft again, restricting the Ghibli meme frenzy exclusively to its users.

OpenAI's Ghibli impresses users with its ability to create detailed, hand-painted visuals reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki’s works.

Sure, it's just some cool images. But it shows the tide is with the customized and the automated — and away from originality

“I want legal action to be taken… I can’t stand seeing Ghibli treated so cheaply" One Piece director Megumi Ishitani has called out the Studio Ghibli AI art trend, demanding legal action against the “unauthorized” use of Miyazaki’s art pic.twitter.com/zb8n7oFOxW — Dexerto (@Dexerto) April 2, 2025