Through a filter, darkly

Express Tribune

20-04-2025

Miyazaki rose to global fame with the 12th film produced by Studio Ghibli, the animation studio he co-founded with Isao Takahata. The film Spirited Away gained cult classic status among anime films for the emotional depth and resonance its stunning visuals evoke. If you want to watch what running away with your imagination looks like for two hours, that's probably apt proof.
Recently, Ghibli art was trending again. Not because of a new film release but a photo filter which was on the lips and fingertips of every enthusiastic selfie taker. OpenAI released a Ghibli filter on ChatGPT 4.0, which had anime lovers abuzz with glee. They could capture moments of their lives with loved ones and transform them into fantastical and lush images like those that swept their childhood imagination. I even saw an AI generated Ghiblified video by a fan of Princess Kate's royal wedding. Such was the craze for the AI tool. At the heels of its popularity, the Ghibli trend sparked controversy, much like fire in the hands of gods and mortals.
The Israel Defence Forces posted four illustrations of its military branches in the Ghibli style because it just wanted to 'hop on the trend'. In response the IDF was condemned for its utter insensitivity for using the art style of a studio and man that has made anti-war animation films.
The White House posted on its official X account, an AI-generated image of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent detaining a Hispanic woman on drug dealing charges. It was a Ghiblified photo and social media was appalled at the disparaging image. Others used the filter to recreate images of tragedies such as 9/11 and the police murder of George Floyd, a black American. It was just a trend for most users, like the IDF, they weren't going to do a background research to use a photo filter when they literally have bombs to drop on Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Miyazaki himself was disgusted. I might as well die, said the 84-year-old auteur, affronted at the millions of cheap likeness AI rendered of his hand-drawn art. AI is an insult to life itself, he had said last year when there was heated debate across the world on AI-generated art. So even when Miyazaki fans popped their vacation and wedding photos on the photo editor apps to create their own Ghibli moments, while it was exciting for them, it must've been much to his horror and mortification.
His fans inadvertently did him the disservice. Not every Ghibli fan may know that it took Miyazaki six long years, in the twilight of his life, to complete his latest film The Boy and the Heron. Not everyone may know the man behind the animation classics they love, honours the integrity of making art above all else. They may assume but not fully understand that for the animation legend bringing his handmade drawings to life is the very purpose of his existence.
Internet users just want a piece of the latest trend. What else is there to do? We are not all born artists. We may not be able to paint a rainbow or draw a straight line, yet here is artificial intelligence for us to employ and manipulate for desired results. Whether it is to render a selfie as a Miyazaki portrait or use ChatGPT to write an article like the one you are reading. AI helps to fill a vacuum between fact and fantasy, what is and what could be.
You wish you could paint like an artist or that you were part of a film. There are AI tools to help you seem like you were.
True creativity resists untruths. Artists are loath to accept computer-generated images as works of fine art. AI can whip up a Van Gogh-esque impressionist landscape or a dreamy scene a la Monet. But there is only one original Starry Night, only one The Garden at Vetheuil. Celebrated Chinese artist and dissenter Ai Weiwei proclaimed that art that can be replicated by AI is 'meaningless'. Even if you have not seen a Van Gogh up close, with a keen eye, you can tell it apart from its computer generated likeness. The human hand is the distinction. It translates the emotions and thoughts produced in the human consciousness. In the documentary on Miyazaki, there is a scene where the artist is agonising over his drawings of the boy in the semi-autobiographical film. His movement is just not quite lifelike in one second of the film. Miyazaki cannot explain it in words, why he is dissatisfied. It is a feeling, and an infuriating equation he can't solve. AI does not grapple with this artistic anguish. It follows a bunch of sophisticated codes and numbers to create a visual, whether it is close to being lifelike or not, it doesn't have the cognition. With airbrushing and photoshopping tools the result of a person's picture can be deformed, if done badly. Similarly, even when you use a filter like the Ghibli one, your anime version might have eight fingers, or your girlfriend next to you might be turned into your boyfriend. Your eyes might be gazing to the left when in fact they are looking straight at the camera in the original photo. When I used it on my pictures, the result was not at all what I expected. The Ghibli version of me could have been any other woman. It had no distinct feature or look that I could call mine.
That is perhaps the most incontrovertible trait of AI generated art. The reason that the maestro Miyazaki took to it with indignation. The likenesses of his drawing style have no soul. When his entire career pivots on the very capability of imbuing his drawings with the spirit of life. Granted I used the free trail versions and did not have the means to give specific prompts to recreate my images to enhance the filter effect, yet that is what creeped me out about my selfies. I wondered at the joy people got by seeing this version of their faces.
When consuming or using AI, we are not so concerned about meaning, just fascinated by the results. It's become another sensory pleasure accessible at our fingertips. AI companies are only expanding their abilities to astound the average human intelligence. In the race to be as creative and responsive as the next Tom, Dick or real life Harry, AI technology is closing the gap at lightning speed. While we are intrigued and fascinated with how it can elevate our daily life tasks within seconds, we are not concerned by the ethics of its usage. Technology has so overwhelmed us that we don't have time to pause and think about our choice to use it.
The documentary HM and the Heron follows the daily work routine of the Studio Ghibli cofounder, where he struggles to find the perfect, the most satisfactory drawing for what he sees in his mind's eye. All the while people around him, closest to him, are dying of old age. After the third death, another colleague, he says, 'I know he died and it's horrible but I don't know what to do.' So he takes to his work desk again and dives into his fantasy world. Film producer friend and former president of Studio Ghibli Toshio Suzuki says then, 'He even converts the energy of death into work.'
Where art and life are coexisting with death, only the ken of ephemeral beings can fathom it. Being human is a step beyond Artificial Intelligence.