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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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Internet users are using a new artificial intelligence generator to create images of famous people and moments in history that could be considered offensive or in poor taste.
Newsweek contacted Open AI to comment on this story.
Why It Matters
After OpenAI launched a new image generator, built into GPT-4o, a viral trend emerged in which social media users used it to replicate the anime style of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio known for films including My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001*)* and Howl's Moving Castle (2004).
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Premium users, who pay from $20 a month for the system can upload images and ask the tool to transform them "into the style of Studio Ghibli." They can also use the tool with Sora, ChatGPT's text-to-video AI model.
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What To Know
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, some users recreated key events in U.S. history using the generator that may be considered as being in poor taste. One depicted George W. Bush finding out about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, while another recreated the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.
A third created an AI mugshot of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski.
Kaczynski killed three people and injured a further 23 in a spate of ideologically-motivated bombings from the 1970s to the 1990s until he was eventually caught. He died in prison in 2023 aged 81.
These images have racked up millions of views.
What People Are Saying
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on X: "We are launching a new thing today—images in chatgpt! (...) it's an incredible technology/product. I remember seeing some of the first images come out of this model and having a hard time [believing] they were really made by AI. We think people will love it, and we are excited to see the resulting creativity."
An OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News that the company's goal was to "give users as much creative freedom as possible."
"We continue to prevent generations in the style of individual living artists, but we do permit broader studio styles—which people have used to generate and share some truly delightful and inspired original fan creations," the spokesperson wrote in an email.
"We're always learning from real-world use and feedback, and we'll keep refining our policies as we go."
Hayao Mizayaki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli has previously spoken out against AI-generated animation. In a 2016 meeting, he said he was "utterly disgusted" by an AI animation demo.
What's Next
Meanwhile, other users used the image generator to create images featuring President Donald Trump, including generations of the iconic photograph of him holding his fist aloft after a failed assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Altman also changed his X profile picture into one in a Studio Ghibli style.
What direction the trend takes next remains to be seen.
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