Audrey Folia | Head Editor
April 3, 2025
On March 26, 2025, ChatGPT released its newest update: the ability for a user to generate their own images. And, while some are praising its accuracy and remarkable ability to generate virtually anything, others are voicing their concerns about what it means for the art industry.
According to OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, one million users joined the platform within one hour of the update. Claiming they designed the feature to be “not only beautiful, but useful,” and the effects of this new ability are evident. Within schools, students are applying its academic advantages to their own lives. For example, Junior Caiya McCalister mentioned having “friends who have started using the tool for school purposes, like creating Venn diagrams and reference images for projects.” However, she voiced the most prevalent concern with AI images generated in this way: “artists are already under-appreciated and now people think AI can just replace them.” AI has been something that’s scared the art industry for a long time, and this new update is what many are fearing to be the beginning of the end for artists.
Currently, there is a trend on social media, specifically on TikTok and Instagram Reels, that involves users putting pictures of themselves into ChatGPT and asking it to turn their photos into “Studio Ghibli” style, the distinctive style of a Japanese studio whose films take years to make as they are hand-drawn. Unlike the real studio, ChatGPT is able to produce the style within a matter of seconds. The trend has stirred controversy online with videos resurfacing of the founder, Hayao Miyazaki, calling AI “an insult to life itself” and “utterly disgusting.” Many are pointing out the irony of the trend combined with the founder’s hatred and urging people not to participate.
Still, this issue is larger than just one controversial trend, it’s the fact that AI now has the ability to replicate almost any art style. While Junior Ashlyn Heller asserted that “the character and soul that artists put into their work can’t be recreated by AI-generated images,” the more AI progresses the less this statement seems to be true. The Studio Ghibli style, for example, is practically indistinguishable from the actual work of the animators. While it is fair to say that not all styles can be perfectly replicated by AI and “soul” is lacking in most of the images, with the rapid advancement of technology it’s possible that it will soon be able to produce the same sort of life into art that was thought only to be possible by humans.
Joanna Maciejewska phrased the issue the best: “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” There are many spheres of life where AI can be a helpful tool, but art isn’t one of them.
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