The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spiritcharacteristic of a period.
What is it about tsunami-like zeitgeist moments…
My family and I have been watching A LOT of Studio Ghibli films this season. In fact, this was prompted by our 9 year old daughter. To date we’ve watched (in no particular order) Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, The Secret World of Arrietty, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro… and we’ve watched parts of When Marnie Was There & Porco Rosso.
The first Ghibli AI slop image I came across was the other day on LinkedIn, followed by Instagram and finally Blue Sky.
I have to admit I was personally devastated to see this style of art turned into absolute shit with many meme recreations, ads, headshots and finally this…
Yes, that is THE White House in their fascist cosplay posting a Ghibli AI slop image of a white male ICE officer handcuffing a crying Virginia Basora-Gonzalez.
With this runaway Ghibli AI slop rampaging across the far reaches of the web it’s just another moment to stop and consider that with AI, nothing is sacred.
Without guardrails, there is no limit to any copyrighted IP being turned into absolute shit for the masses to digest and make less of.
In a way, the Ghibli AI slop machine is represented by a Ghibli character we’re all familiar with by now…
No-face (from Spirited Away) is a shapeshifting monster who has an insatiable appetite for content and validation. Much like these image generators and so called AI for that matter.
May we all learn and heed the perspective from Miyazaki-san himself when asked about AI and it’s role in making art…
Every morning, not in recent days, I see my friend who has a disability. It’s so hard for him just to do a high five; his arm with stiff muscle can’t reach out to my hand. Now, thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is. I’m 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.
Miyazaki went on to say, “I feel like we are nearing to the end of the times
