Studio Ghibli politely declares war on Sora's AI slop

Just as one front in the battle between AI vs art closes, another opens. This week, the UK High Court ruled against Getty Images' claim that Stable Diffusion's training on images from its stock photo library constituted copyright infringement. But meanwhile, Studio Ghibli and other Japanese companies have finally had enough.

The Japanese animation studio's distinctive art style has been one of those most ripped off using AI image generators. We've seen that in the viral Studio Ghibli-style memes made using OpenAI's Chat GPT 4, but it's OpenAI's Sora 2 video model that finally earned an incensed but very polite response. Will OpenAI CEO Sam Altman finally be shamed into changing his X profile pic at least?

Studio Ghibli and other Japanese IP holders like Bandai Namco and Square Enix are represented by an anti-piracy body called the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA). It's sent a letter to OpenAI asking it to stop using its members’ content for machine learning without permission and to responds sincerely to claims and inquiries from CODA member companies regarding copyright infringement related to Sora 2’s outputs.

“CODA, in cooperation with its member companies, requests that OpenAI respond sincerely such that both the healthy development of AI technology and the protection of rightsholders and creators’ rights are ensured,” the letter states.

The complaint isn't that Sora produces video that resembles its members' IPs, but that OpenAI used those IPs for training without permission.

OpenAI had initially said that copyright owners would have to opt out if they didn't want Sora to use their art to create AI deepfakes. It expressed surprise when a wide range of rights holders turned out to have a problem with that and has since backtracked. It now claims to block the generation of copyright IPs unless their owners have opted in.

But it's not clear if that's a good enough response for CODA as copyright work may have already been used in the training. “Under Japan’s copyright system, prior permission is generally required for the use of copyrighted works, and there is no system allowing one to avoid liability for infringement through subsequent objections,” the letter states.

Japan’s government has also asked OpenAI not to replicate Japanese artwork. Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki hasn't commented on the viral explosion of AI imagery in the studio's style but he famous described AI as “an insult to life itself” when he was shown an early experiment in AI-generated 3D animation in almost a decade ago.