The Ghibli effect: ChatGPT’s AI art craze drives record-breaking growth
OpenAI’s latest feature dominates social media, but questions remain over legality.
The frenzy to create Studio Ghibli-style AI art using ChatGPT's image-generation tool led to a record surge in users for OpenAI's chatbot last week, overwhelming its servers and forcing temporary usage limits.
The viral trend saw users worldwide flood social media with AI-generated images mimicking the signature hand-drawn style of Studio Ghibli, the renowned Japanese animation studio founded by Hayao Miyazaki, known for films such as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.
For the first time this year, average weekly active users surpassed the 150 million mark, according to market research firm Similarweb.
“We added one million users in the last hour,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X on Monday, comparing it to the addition of one million users over five days following ChatGPT’s explosive launch more than two years ago.
According to SensorTower data, ChatGPT saw all-time highs in active users, in-app subscription revenue, and app downloads last week after OpenAI rolled out updates to its GPT-4o model, introducing enhanced image-generation capabilities.
The market intelligence firm reported that global app downloads and weekly active users for ChatGPT grew 11% and 5%, respectively, from the previous week, while in-app purchase revenue rose by 6%.
However, the chatbot has faced a series of glitches and minor outages over the past week due to surging traffic from the viral image-generation tool.
"We are getting things under control, but you should expect new releases from OpenAI to be delayed, things to break, and occasional slow service as we manage capacity challenges," an OpenAI co-founder said on Tuesday.
The widespread use of the AI tool for Ghibli-style art has also sparked debate over potential copyright issues.
"The legal landscape of AI-generated images that imitate Studio Ghibli’s distinctive style remains uncertain. Copyright law generally protects specific expressions rather than artistic styles themselves," said Evan Brown, a partner at law firm Neal & McDevitt.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the data used to train its AI models and the legality of its latest feature.
Following the trend's explosion last week, past comments from Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki on AI-generated images resurfaced online.
"I am utterly disgusted," Miyazaki had said in 2016 after being shown an early AI-generated render. "I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all."
