LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fans of Studio Ghibli, the famed Japanese animation studio behind “Spirited Away” and other beloved movies, were delighted this week when a new version of ChatGPT let them transform popular internet memes or personal photos into the distinct style of Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki.
But the trend also highlighted ethical concerns about artificial intelligence tools trained on copyrighted creative works and what that means for the future livelihoods of human artists. Miyazaki, 84, known for his hand-drawn approach and whimsical storytelling, has expressed skepticism about AI's role in animation.
Janu Lingeswaran wasn't thinking much about that when he uploaded a photo of his 3-year-old ragdoll cat, Mali, into ChatGPT's new image generator tool on Wednesday. He then asked ChatGPT to convert it to the Ghibli style, instantly making an anime image that looked like Mali but also one of the painstakingly drawn feline characters that populate Miyazaki movies such as “My Neighbor Totoro” or “Kiki's Delivery Service.”
“I really fell in love with the result,” said Lingeswaran, an entrepreneur who lives near Aachen, Germany. “We're thinking of printing it out and hanging it on the wall.”
Similar results gave the Ghibli style to iconic images, such as the casual look of Turkish pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec in a T-shirt and one hand in his pocket on his way to winning a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics. Or the famed “Disaster Girl” meme of a 4-year-old turning to the camera with a slight smile as a house fire rages in the background.
ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which is fighting copyright lawsuits over its flagship chatbot, has largely encouraged the “Ghiblification” experiments and its CEO Sam Altman changed his profile on social media platform X into a Ghibli-style portrait. In a technical paper posted Tuesday, the company had said the new tool would be taking a “conservative approach” in the way it mimics the aesthetics of individual artists.
“We added a refusal which triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist,” it said. But the company added in a statement that it “permits broader studio styles — which people have used to generate and share some truly delightful and inspired original fan creations.”
Studio Ghibli in Japan declined to comment Friday.
As users posted their Ghibli-style images on social media, Miyazaki’s previous comments on AI animation also began to resurface. When Miyazaki was shown an AI demo in 2016, he said he was “utterly disgusted” by the display, according to documentary footage of the interaction. The person demonstrating the animation, which showed a writhing body dragging itself by its head, explained that AI could “present us grotesque movements that we humans can’t imagine.” It could be used for zombie movements, the person said.
That prompted Miyazaki to tell a story.
“Every morning, not in recent days, I see my friend who has a disability,” Miyazaki said. “It’s so hard for him just to do a high five; his arm with stiff muscle can’t reach out to my hand. Now, thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is.”
He said he would “never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all.”
“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself,” he added.
Josh Weigensberg, a partner at the law firm Pryor Cashman, said that one question the Ghibli-style AI art raises is whether the AI model was trained on Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli’s work. That in turn “raises the question of, ‘Well, do they have a license or permission to do that training or not?’” he said.
OpenAI didn’t respond to a question Thursday about whether it had a license.
Weigensberg added that if a work was licensed for training, it might make sense for a company to permit this type of use. But if this type of use is happening without consent and compensation, he said, it could be “problematic.”
Weigensberg said that there is a general principle “at the 30,000-foot view” that “style” is not copyrightable. But sometimes, he said, what people are actually thinking of when they say “style” could be "more specific, discernible, discrete elements of a work of art,” he said.
“A ‘Howl’s Moving Castle' or ‘Spirited Away,’ you could freeze a frame in any of those films and point to specific things, and then look at the output of generative AI and see identical elements or substantially similar elements in that output,” he said. “Just stopping at, ‘Oh, well, style isn’t protectable under copyright law.’ That's not necessarily the end of the inquiry.”
Artist Karla Ortiz, who grew up watching Miyazaki’s movies and is suing other AI image generators for copyright infringement in a case that’s still pending, called it “another clear example of how companies like OpenAI just do not care about the work of artists and the livelihoods of artists.”
“That’s using Ghibli’s branding, their name, their work, their reputation, to promote (OpenAI) products,” Ortiz said. “It’s an insult. It’s exploitation.”
Ortiz was further enraged when President Donald Trump’s administration jumped into the meme trend Thursday, using the White House’s official X account to post a Ghibli-style image of a weeping woman from the Dominican Republic recently arrested by U.S. immigration agents. The White House and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on how the image was made.
“To see something so brilliant, as wonderful as Miyazaki’s work be butchered to generate something so foul,” Ortiz wrote on social media, adding that she hoped Studio Ghibli sues “the hell out of” OpenAI for this.
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O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives.
FILE - Hayao Miyazaki of Japan, director of the animated film "Ponyo," poses at a special screening of the film in Los Angeles on July 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 22, 2025--
Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it has arranged a $778.6 million construction loan to facilitate the office-to-residential conversion of 111 Wall Street, located along the East River waterfront in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District. The closing of this financing marks the largest single-building office-to-residential conversion loan in New York City history, and the country.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251222794121/en/
The Walker & Dunlop Capital Markets Institutional Advisory Practice arranged the loan on behalf of InterVest capital partners, a global alternative investment manager. Dustin Stolly, Aaron Appel, Adam Schwartz, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Sean Reimer, and Sean Bastian, arranged the financing from Apollo Global Management, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and TYKO Capital. Walker & Dunlop also advised on the extension of an existing $88.4 million C-PACE loan from Petros that remained in the capitalization, bringing the total financing package to $867 million.
Originally built in 1968, 111 Wall Street is currently a 24-story, fully vacant office tower being converted into a 30-story luxury residential rental community. The project includes a five-story overbuild, a fully redesigned lobby, and will feature approximately 1,568 rental units across more than 899,000 rentable square feet, including open layouts, perpetually protected water views, condo-level finishes, and over 100,000 square feet of luxury amenities. The redevelopment will also include 7,000 rentable square feet of ground floor retail. Approximately 25% of the units will be designated as affordable housing for residents earning an average of 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), qualifying the project for New York City’s Affordable Housing Conversion Program.
“With office vacancies still elevated post-pandemic, we are seeing developers and global capital providers increasingly turning to residential conversions as a practical path forward,” said Stolly, senior managing director at Walker & Dunlop. “Manhattan’s apartment demand remains exceptionally strong, and projects like 111 Wall Street address both the growing need for housing and the repositioning of outdated, underutilized office assets. This project underscores continued investor confidence in large-scale adaptive reuse in core urban markets. We are pleased to work with InterVest, its development partners, and trusted lenders on this transformative conversion.”
The amenity program is designed to rival luxury condominium offerings and position 111 Wall Street as a premier downtown Manhattan rental property. Highlights include a wellness and recreation suite with a spa, golf simulator, bowling alley, and social lounges; a full-service, state-of-the-art fitness center, café, and co-working spaces; and a signature rooftop with climate-controlled basketball and padel courts and New York City’s only rooftop NBA regulation court, along with a pool, jogging track, outdoor fitness area, and panoramic views of the waterfront and Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines. Additional amenities include a 24/7 lobby, concierge services, tenant storage, and a curated mix of lifestyle spaces.
"111 Wall Street exemplifies InterVest's commitment to identifying and executing complex, value-add opportunities in dynamic urban markets," said Michael Gontar, CEO at InterVest capital partners. "This project captures the evolving demand for high-quality residential living in Lower Manhattan. The building's scale, prime waterfront location, and exceptional amenity offering positions it to attract strong and sustained tenant interest. Adaptive reuse projects like this are a hallmark of one of our investment strategies, transforming underutilized assets into best-in-class residential communities that serve growing populations, revitalize neighborhoods, and address the housing shortage in New York City. We're grateful to Walker & Dunlop, our lending partners, and the entire development team for their collaboration in bringing this transformative vision to life."
The development team includes MetroLoft Development as developer, Collaborative Construction Management as construction manager, Gensler as architect of record, and Corcoran New Development as marketing and leasing agent.
“We’re excited to be working with InterVest and Walker & Dunlop on this iconic property, which will bring much-needed new housing to the city and one of its most vibrant neighborhoods," said Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of Metro Loft.
111 Wall Street’s premier waterfront location along South Street and the East River waterfront distinguishes it from most other residential offerings in the Financial District, offering sweeping views of the East River, Brooklyn skyline, the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, as well as city views. Its positioning within the neighborhood also provides for ease of access to various transportation options, including immediate access to premier lifestyle amenities including Brookfield Place, the South Street Seaport, Westfield World Trade Center Mall, and the Tin Building by Jean-Georges.
In 2024, Walker & Dunlop’s Capital Markets team sourced over $16 billion from non-Agency capital providers. This vast experience has made them a top advisor on all asset classes for many of the industry’s top developers, owners, and operators. To learn more about Walker & Dunlop’s broad financing options, visit our website.
About Walker & Dunlop
Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD) is one of the largest commercial real estate finance and advisory services firms in the United States and internationally. Our ideas and capital create communities where people live, work, shop, and play. Our innovative people, breadth of our brand, and our technological capabilities make us one of the most insightful and client-focused firms in the commercial real estate industry.
About InterVest capital partners
InterVest capital partners (“InterVest”) is a New York-based global alternative investment manager specializing in real estate, specialty finance, and asset-based lending. Since its inception, InterVest has invested $25 billion in alternative strategies and is 100% employee-owned and controlled, with teams in New York, London, and Luxembourg investing across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. To date, the company has invested over $10.7 billion in US real estate mandates.
About Metro Loft
MetroLoft Developers, LLC is a vertically integrated real estate development and management company founded in 1995 by Nathan Berman, who continues to serve as the managing principal. As a pioneer in the residential development of Lower Manhattan, MetroLoft has spent the past three decades redeveloping some of the most iconic buildings in downtown New York City, including landmarks such as 443 Greenwich St., 20 Exchange Place and 63 Wall St. Metro Loft is responsible for the acquisition, development and management of some of the most notable condominium and rental buildings in Lower Manhattan. Our reputation as a leading commercial-to-residential development firm is built upon our approach and vision to preserve the details that make each property unique and to elevate them through modern design and amenities.
111 Wall Rendering. Photo Credit: Gensler
