The internet hasn’t felt this soothing in a long time! Colors have turned pastel, landscapes have become dreamy, and even the dreariest people now appear cute and warm. That’s the “Ghiblification” of the internet – the Studio Ghibli-style AI creativity. People are now asking AI to touch up their lived memories with the vibrant fantasy of the Studio Ghibli art style.
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese Animation studio founded by the great master Hayao Miyazaki, along with Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki. This animation studio has produced some of the most magical works like Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and many more. This studio is renowned for its enchanting hand-drawn visuals with soft pastel and muted color palettes. And while everything may look cute, the human expressions often feel raw—if not outright rogue. Now, AI generation of Ghibli art has stirred up a long-standing philosophical debate once again: is what AI creates truly “creative”? Should the masters of the craft worry about being replaced? And will we, humans embrace “true art” fairly, or remain biased depending on whether it’s made by man or machine?
We call the ‘intelligence’ in AI artificial because it isn’t innate or natural—we teach it through algorithms.
For example, when an AI tool distinguishes between a dog and a cat in an image, it does so because we’ve trained it on hundreds of thousands of pictures of dogs and cats. During training, it learns which pixel patterns match each animal. In generative tasks, instead of distinguishing objects, AI creates them. Once it has seen enough cat and dog images, it can generate new images of cats and dogs on command. Likewise, when trained on the works of Shakespeare, Ghibli, or Mozart, it can generate pieces of ‘art’ in their style.
According to German philosopher Martin Heidegger, technology unveils natural phenomena by transforming them from a hidden state into a form of utility—for instance, wind turbines convert wind energy into electrical energy. In a similar context, think AI as a technology that we developed to unveil us, ourselves—to reveal the complexity of being human.
Here, we took the bait of creating machines that could outperform our own intelligence. In a specific task—even one that demands creativity—an AI tool can outperform the average human. Why? Because it has unwavering focus, no bad moods—in fact, no mood at all. No head to have a headache, no stress to navigate, no competitive pressure to wrestle with. It lacks all the traits we humans constantly struggle to overcome, no matter the situation. And that’s the unpredictability of being human.
So, we’ve built machines that can outperform us in certain tasks—but does that mean they understand what they’re doing? And more importantly, does understanding even matter? Let’s explore that in part two, where creativity meets consciousness, and imitation confronts authenticity.
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1. Brilliantly articulated…A powerful reflection on AI’s strengths—and our own messy, beautiful humanity. 🥴 Can’t wait for part two!