“Billionaire Can’t Afford $40 Art Commission”: Mike Tyson Sets Internet Buzzing by Hoping in on the Studio Ghibli Trend

   

Billionaire Can't Afford $40 Art Commission”: Mike Tyson Sets Internet  Buzzing by Hoping in on the Studio Ghibli Trend - EssentiallySports

Hayao Miyazaki might have seen this one coming long before AI art was even a thing. “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work,” he had said a few years ago about AI being used as a tool to animate. The two-time Academy Award winner even went further: “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” The visionary filmmaker responsible for popularizing Studio Ghibli (the film company which he co-founded) and its particular style of animation must be disheartened to see his life’s work being used as a passing trend. But here we are anyway.

The man who gave us Laputa: Castle in the Sky back in 1986 has only ever created pure masterpieces since. Think My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away—the list goes on. If you’re an avid anime or manga fan like this writer, you already know that every single one of his films isn’t just visually stunning—it’s filled with heart, soul, and emotions that stick with you long after the credits roll. And that is where the problem lies.

AI-generated Ghibli-style art has taken over the internet, particularly X, in the past few days, and everyone—literally everyone—is hopping on the trend. People are posting AI-curated versions of themselves, and their loved ones using Open AI’s GPT-4o model. Even Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman jumped in on the trend, replacing his profile picture with a Studio Ghibli-style AI-generated avatar. And now Mike Tyson has joined in the scores of netizens posting Ghibli-style AI images. AI can definitely mimic the color palettes and the art style of Studio Ghibli, based on existing images. But what it can’t do is capture the depth of emotions, the small, human nuances that make Miyazaki’s work so powerful.

And yet, when Tyson posted his AI-generated Ghibli-style portrait, the reactions were… well, let’s just say they were something else. It all happened yesterday when Mike Tyson hopped on the trend. “My happy place,” he captioned his AI-generated image. The image shows him in a brown turtleneck, holding a white pigeon, lovingly, with both hands. However, not everyone was happy with the image. “Billionaire can’t afford $40 art commission,” a user quipped while sharing the image.