On social media, OpenAI’s most recent image-generation release has sparked a Ghibli art festival. The internet appears to have changed into a setting from Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, complete with hand-drawn character portraits with expressive eyes and landscapes that resemble watercolors.
How it started
OpenAI’s latest tool, which was unveiled on Tuesday as part of GPT-4o, has astounded users with its capacity to replicate the iconic Ghibli style. Although the model was intended to produce extremely realistic and stylized images, its surprising ability to mimic the renowned artwork of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has made it a viral phenomenon.
we are launching a new thing today—images in chatgpt!
two things to say about it:
1. it’s an incredible technology/product. i remember seeing some of the first images come out of this model and having a hard time they were really made by AI. we think people will love it, and we…
— Sam Altman (@sama) March 25, 2025
Users started tinkering with the picture generator, prompting it to test its capabilities, just hours after OpenAI’s version went live. People quickly realized that the AI was very skilled at producing artwork with Studio Ghibli influences.
Ghibli-style depictions of people’s selfies, pets, imaginary characters, and even commonplace items like bicycles and coffee cups quickly overtook social media.
Using hashtags like #GhibliStyle and #AIGhibli, individuals shared their AI-generated artwork on X, Instagram, and Reddit, causing the trend to spread quickly. Some even reimagined famous pop culture moments using the technique, creating Ghibli-style characters out of historical people, celebrities, and internet memes.
Theme of the day pic.twitter.com/2ioG0StAxL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2025
With the most recent version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is powered by GPT-4o, users may now create images right within the chatbot. All users have access to this new function, “Images in ChatGPT,” although owing to heavy demand, free-tier users may experience some limitations.
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Note: This feature is currently working for ChatGPT Plus users.
