Sam Altman defends AI art as Ghibli trend sparks debate
Critics accused feature of copying styles and raised concerns about exploitation of original art
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has defended AI art amid the ongoing backlash over AI-generated Studio Ghibli images created using ChatGPT, terming it a 'net win' for society.
On a YouTube podcast hosted by an Indian entrepreneur, Altman defended the technology’s social impact, saying: “I think the democratisation of creating content has been a big net win for society. It has not been a complete win, there are negative things about it for sure, and certainly it did something about the art form, but I think on the whole it’s been a win,” he said.
The trend sparked outrage from fans of Japanese animation studio Ghibli after ChatGPT’s GPT-4o model introduced native image generation. Critics accused the feature of copying styles and raised concerns about the exploitation of original art.
Altman acknowledged job losses from AI and said, “It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t cause some job loss, and some people who had a sort of differential ability to do something now have a lot more competition. But overall, I think it’s a real benefit to society.”
He highlighted how lower tech barriers enabled innovation, saying OpenAI itself was a product of these shifts. “OpenAI… only got to happen because the barriers to entry to a bunch of different pieces of technology stack got significantly low and this ragtag bunch of us were able to just do something we had no right to do.”
He also noted India’s growing AI presence: “India was one of the first markets outside the US that really jumped on AI in a huge, huge way… it is now our fastest growing market.”
On AI’s job impact, he said, “There will be some jobs that totally go away… Mostly I think it’ll be a case of a new tool where people are just much more productive and can do work at a higher quality.” On coding, he said AI may make coders “10 times more productive,” though it could also affect the price of code due to higher supply.
Altman concluded that the broader accessibility of creative tools would ultimately help society, even if the transition is bumpy.
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