{"id":113968,"date":"2025-11-04T00:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T00:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113968\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T00:15:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T00:15:06","slug":"studio-ghibli-and-other-japanese-publishers-want-openai-to-stop-training-on-their-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113968\/","title":{"rendered":"Studio Ghibli and other Japanese publishers want OpenAI to stop training on their work"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Japanese trade organization representing publishers like Studio Ghibli wrote a letter<\/a> to OpenAI last week, calling for the AI giant to stop training<\/a> its AI models on their copyrighted content without permission.<\/p>\n

Studio Ghibli, the animation studio behind films like \u201cSpirited Away\u201d and \u201cMy Neighbor Totoro,\u201d has been especially impacted by OpenAI\u2019s generative AI products. When ChatGPT\u2019s native image generator was released in March, it became a popular trend<\/a> for users to prompt for recreations of their selfies or pet pictures in the style of the studio\u2019s films. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman changed his profile picture on X<\/a> to a \u201cGhiblified\u201d picture.<\/p>\n

Now, as more people get access to OpenAI\u2019s Sora app and video generator, Japan\u2019s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has requested that OpenAI refrain from using its members\u2019 content for machine learning without permission.<\/p>\n

>be me
>grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever
>mostly no one cares for first 7.5 years, then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything
>wake up one day to hundreds of messages: “look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha”<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sam Altman (@sama) March 26, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

This request does not come unprompted. OpenAI\u2019s approach to working with copyrighted content is to ask forgiveness, not permission, which has made it all too easy for users to generate photos and videos of copyrighted characters<\/a> and deceased celebrities<\/a>. This approach has yielded complaints from institutions like Nintendo<\/a>, as well as the estate<\/a> of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who could very easily be deepfaked on the Sora app. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s up to OpenAI to choose whether or not to cooperate with these requests; if not, the aggrieved parties can file a lawsuit, though United States law remains unclear about the use of copyrighted material for AI training.<\/p>\n

There is little precedent thus far to guide judges on their interpretation of copyright law, which has not been updated<\/a> since 1976. However, a recent ruling by US federal judge William Alsup found that Anthropic did not violate the law<\/a> by training its AI on copyrighted books \u2014 the company did get fined for pirating the books it used for training, though.<\/p>\n

But Japan\u2019s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) claims that this may be considered a copyright violation in Japan.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cIn cases, as with Sora 2, where specific copyrighted works are reproduced or similarly generated as outputs, CODA considers that the act of replication during the machine learning process may constitute copyright infringement,\u201d CODA wrote. \u201cUnder Japan\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayao Miyazaki, one of the central creative figures of Studio Ghibli, has not commented directly on the proliferation of AI-generated interpretations of his work. However, when he was shown AI-generated 3D animation in 2016, he responded<\/a> that he was \u201cutterly disgusted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t watch this stuff and find it interesting,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cI feel strongly that this is an insult to life itself.\u201d<\/p>\n