Members of the Japanese Government Try to Make Sense of Ghibli AI Craze
The recent OpenAI craze of making Studio Ghibli style art has gotten a lot of people talking about copyright laws. Studio Ghibli itself still has not made a statement on it (though Hayao Miyazaki famously came out as anti-AI a few years ago), but the controversy did make it all the way up to the Japanese government.
It happened at a House of Representatives Cabinet Committee earlier this week. Politicians Masato Imai and Hirohiko Nakahara discussed what had happened and what might be done about it, though neither had clear answers for the second part.
Imai remarked, “There has been discussion of whether the so-called ‘Ghiblification,’ making AI-generated images in the Ghibli style, constitutes copyright violation. Under the current interpretation of the law, just how legal is it?”
Nakahara, the Director-General for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Strategy, replied, “Ultimately, that is something for courts to decide.”
He theorized, “If it is only a matter of the style or ideas being similar, then it would not be considered copyright infringement.”
But then he went on, “If AI-generated content is determined to be similar to or reliant on preexisting copyrighted works, then there is a possibility that it could constitute copyright infringement.”
Imai mused, “So the use of styles and ideas is legal, but if [an AI-generated image] were recognized as being ‘Ghibli itself,’ then that would be a violation of law.”
Laws have not caught up with technology on this matter. An American lawyer, Rob Rosenberg of Telluride Legal Strategies, also gave comments not long ago on what he thought about the legality of what OpenAI is doing. He opined, “Ghibli could argue that by converting user photos to ‘Ghibli-style,’ OpenAI is trading off the goodwill of Ghibli’s trademarks, using Ghibli’s identifiable style and leading to a likelihood of confusion among consumers that this function is endorsed or licensed by Studio Ghibli.”
Source: SoraNews24
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
