As of March 20, 2025 we have seen numerous ChatGPT4 Ghibli animation uploads. Political, LOTR, Interstellar video clips turned into GhiBli animations. From news I have read there has been no commercial agreements or authorized approval for OpenAI to train its model on GhiBli productions. But it's obvious that OpenAi did. Sam Altman has even been so brazen as to fashion his profile in the GhiBli style. To have the reasoning to move on this overreach is of a type that can only come from individuals who not only can afford to do so but can financially defend themselves in doing so if required. This is a level of individual & corporate thinking the rest of us aren't able to compete with. Could it be that OpenAi has done this for the numbers to a short-term gain. Interest in OpenAI, its products & Sam Altman's public persona has waned. Sam has spent the last two month's crying about fair use. All negatives. Is this an attempt to overrule this negative opinion by harnessing a legion of computer users who for no other reason just love everything a computer can do. A calculated risk by OpenAi that there are more people that will love the ability to do so than people who will find the exploitation unethical. There are those who love GhiBli animation, those that love LOTR & now they will love ChatGPT4 for creating an amalgam of the two. Promoting an entire new genre of deepfake videos. A music software developer said to me, there are 1000x more non-musicians wanting to make music than there are real musicians making music, so why build software for the real musician? This is probably a truism in all forms of creativity employing a computer. The online services & software functionalities for non-creative types have bloomed. Ai produces for those people who want to make something, like something, today! Just two years prior Amazon released The Rings of Power but did it with full cooperation from the Tolkien estate. Amazon made the arraignment obviously as commercial streaming profits would be made. But won't profits be made by Frank Valchiria who currently has 13,000+ views, 3 days after he uploaded it, of this LOTR GhiBli amalgam on his YouTube channel at this moment? & Where is YouTube content checker in this moment keeping Frank in check? YouTube should have recognized the similarities between what Frank uploaded and the Peter Jackson film. The YouTube system flags a user who attempts to upload a beat from a popular song. There is even a YouTube vid that points out how perfectly alike the two version are. Where is the Tolkien estate? Where is Disney Studios which owns a 10% stake in GhiBli capable of putting OpenAi in check? I am a supporter of the copyright. I believe it gives all of us who create the support to capitalize on our ideas, how & when we want to. But if at the top of the media world those who have the financial might to reign in exploitation aren't going to do anything about it, then the copyright law has little meaning. With or without copyright law, my creativity will survive. My favorite Gary Numan quote still applies, "I think if you are creative, it's an unstoppable force, it keeps coming out for the rest of your life."
So... how do we secure creativity from those who aren't?
So... how do we secure creativity from those who aren't?