OpenAI launched ChatGPT’s Ghibli-style AI image generator, and social media is now flooded with Ghibli-style portraits. Millions of users, including celebrities and politicians, are sharing their artificial intelligence-generated photos in the signature style of Ghibli legend Hayao Miyazaki. Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, also features a new Ghibli-style image-generation ability. This feature in Grok 3 lets users to develop Ghibli-inspired images free of cost. But are you aware of the Ghibli art AI risk?
The latest internet trend has now sparked a heated controversy. Digital privacy advocates alert that OpenAI may be silently gathering personal information on a massive scale. Users may be unknowingly feeding OpenAI a massive, high-quality, and diverse dataset of human faces.
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What are the risks of uploading personal photos to get AI-generated images?
Digital privacy activists on X raised alarm over OpenAI’s Ghibli-style AI art generator. They said that using this trend, OpenAI is gathering thousands of personal images for AI training.
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While users are engrossed with the latest trend and having fun with the feature, critics warn that users are unknowingly handing over fresh facial data to OpenAI that might potentially compromise their privacy.
1. Bypassing legal restrictions
According to activists, OpenAI’s data collection process is not just an AI copyright issue. It allows the company to acquire voluntarily submitted images, bypassing legal restrictions that apply to web-scraped data.
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- Under GDPR ( General Data Protection Regulation) regulations, OpenAI must justify scraping images from the internet under “legitimate interest,” which demands additional safeguards to protect user privacy and ensure compliance.
- However, when users upload images themselves, they are providing consent, bypassing these restrictions entirely and giving OpenAI more liberty to process the data.
So, OpenAI is getting free, high-resolution images for AI training while keeping the originals to itself.
In a detailed X post, Luiza Jarovsky, co-founder of the AI, Tech & Privacy Academy, shared that when people voluntarily upload images, they give their consent to OpenAI to process them (Article 6.1.a of the GDPR). This is a different legal ground that gives more freedom to OpenAI, and the legitimate interest balancing test no longer applies.
🚨 Most people haven’t realized that the Ghibli Effect is not only an AI copyright controversy but also OpenAI’s PR trick to get access to thousands of new personal images; here’s how:
To get their own Ghibli (or Sesame Street) version, thousands of people are now voluntarily… pic.twitter.com/zBktscNOSh
— Luiza Jarovsky (@LuizaJarovsky) March 29, 2025
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2. OpenAI is gaining free and easy access to personal images – only they have access to the original images
Users can only see the final “Ghibli-style” version, but OpenAI is getting both the raw and the altered data. It is potentially improving its ability to train future AI models.
Beyond the legal advantage, OpenAI is gaining access to new, unique images, including personal and family images that are posted online. Unlike social media companies that can see the AI-generated “Ghiblified” versions, OpenAI keeps the original uploads.
3. Your photos might become the Next AI Training Tool
Cybersecurity groups like Himachal Cyber Warriors have issued warnings and cautioned users about the risks of uploading their faces to AI platforms. A viral post on X (formerly Twitter) says,
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“Think before you #Ghibli. That cute Ghibli-style selfie? It might cost more than you think. Your photo could be misused or manipulated. AI may train on it without your consent. Data brokers might sell it for targeted ads. Stay cyber smart. Your privacy matters.”
⚠️ Think before you #Ghibli ⚠️
That cute “Ghibli-style” selfie? It might cost more than you think.
🔎 Your photo could be misused or manipulated.
🧑💻 AI may train on it without your consent.
💰 Data brokers might sell it for targeted ads.
Stay cyber smart. Your privacy matters.… pic.twitter.com/aEjT3sHtTN— Himachal Cyber Warriors (@hpcyberwarriors) March 29, 2025
OpenAI’s own privacy policy explicitly states that the company collects personal data input by users to train its AI models – unless they opt out. However, few users pay attention to this while participating in trends like Ghibli-fication.
4. Why is it risky for AI to gain your Visual Data?
Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun, shared that AI models require visual input to reach human-level intelligence. He says that text alone is not enough.
He shared that the largest AI models today are trained on 20 trillion words, equivalent to all publicly available text on the internet. But a child processes the same amount of visual data in just four years.
Thus, to reach human intelligence, AI must process vast amounts of visual input. The easiest way to get it is directly from users.
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LeCun explains,
“We’re never going to get to human-level AI by just training on text. We’re going to have to get systems to understand the real world, and understanding the real world is really hard.”
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Proton, a platform that believes in privacy on the internet, noted on X,
“Once you share personal photos with AI, you lose control over how they are used since those photos are then used to train AI.”
The group also warned on X that,
“data could be used for personalised ads and/or sold to third parties”.
Think this is a fun trend? Think again.
While some don’t have an issue sharing selfies on social media, the trend of creating a “Ghibli-style” image has seen many people feeding OpenAI photos of themselves and their families.
Here’s why that’s a problem:
1/4 pic.twitter.com/o9VqS3Teoe
— Proton (@ProtonPrivacy) March 27, 2025
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5. Experts also warn about the possible risk of one’s images being misused by AI for commercial exploitation
They believe that the uploaded photos of individuals might be used to generate misleading or defamatory content.
Elle Farrell-Kingsley, who is a British futurist, journalist, and advocate for AI ethics, shared a word of caution on using personal images for these Ghibli-style portraits. She wrote on X,
“Uploading photos/thoughts to AI tools risks exposing metadata, location, even sensitive data — especially for kids.
“If it’s free, you (& your data) are the price. If you’re fine with that, great but it’s good to be aware”
Ghibli-style AI art is everywhere, but some concerns:
1️⃣Privacy: Uploading pics/thoughts to AI tools risks exposing metadata, location, even sensitive data—esp for kids.
⚖️If it’s free, you (& your data) are the price. If you’re fine with that, great but it’s good to be aware pic.twitter.com/l6HxjP3vtO
— Elle Farrell-Kingsley (@ellefkingsley) March 28, 2025
For people who care I will explain something about the GHBILI stuff that everyone just conveniently isn’t parsing…
Ad vs Ad Block… vs posting a Ghibli of your own photos.
Ghibli doesn’t have any means of monetizing your personal being transferred to their art style.
When…
— Roberto Blake 🇺🇸🇵🇦 Creative Entrepreneur (@robertoblake) March 28, 2025
Experts also added that a compromised facial identity remains disclosed permanently, as it cannot be changed, unlike a password.
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6. Copyright issues
Legal experts say that OpenAI is not technically violating laws by generating images that look like Studio Ghibli movies. Evan Brown, an intellectual property lawyer at the US-based law firm Neal & McDevitt, told TechCrunch that the style is not explicitly protected by copyright laws.
However, Josh Weigensberg, a partner at law firm Pryor Cashman was quoted as stating that while “style” can’t be copyrighted, specific elements of an artwork could infringe copyright laws if they are too similar to the original.
The founder of this style, Hayao Miyazaki, is not a fan of AI or generating images. In a 2016 video, Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki described AI-generated art as,
“insult to life itself.”
He added,
“I am utterly disgusted,”
“If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it, but I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all.”
I remember this clip of the Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki documentary when he says AI generated art is an “awful insult to life”.
But when was last time when @OpenAI showed they respected other people’s art or anybody’s life. pic.twitter.com/gwJTcEHxOZ
— Jen Zhu (@jenzhuscott) March 26, 2025
Here is what ChatGPT said on the risks involved
When we asked ChatGPT if it is safe to upload personal photos in the Ghibli art generator, it replied,
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Uploading personal and family photos to AI tools like ChatGPT’s Ghibli-style art generator involves certain privacy and security risks. Digital privacy experts have raised concerns that such platforms may collect and utilize uploaded images to train AI models, potentially compromising user privacy.
So, OpenAI’s motivation for viral visual trends like the Ghibli generator may be a way to get millions of images for free
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Before jumping on the AI image trends, consider the risks. Here are a few steps to keep your biometric data safe and protect your privacy:
- Before uploading personal photos for AI-generated images, do give it a second thought.
- Sharing high-resolution images on social media should be avoided, as they can be scraped for AI training.
- Try to avoid facial recognition to unlock devices; use PINs or passwords instead.
- Restrict camera access by checking which apps have permission to use it.
Did you hop into the Ghibli trend as well? If yes, then you should reconsider it after reading about the risks involved. Do share your views in the comment section.
