The recent use of generative artificial intelligence to restyle private images in the style of Studio Ghibli has raised both legal and ethical concerns.
An artist’s style, as such, is not protected by intellectual property rights. Copyright protects an artist’s forms of expression, rather than the artist’s style itself. An artist may therefore assert copyright or moral rights in relation to the unauthorized use or reproduction of their works. For example, in the case of Studio Ghibli, if characters created by Hayao Miyazaki were reproduced without authorization or used in a way that infringes his moral rights. However, this does not give the artist exclusive rights over their style.
As a result, transforming a photograph into a particular artistic style through genAI, such as the Ghibli or LEGO style, would not in itself generally constitute copyright infringement, provided that no protected characters, scenes, or other specific elements from the artist’s works are reproduced without authorization.
Nevertheless, the ethical questions surrounding the use of generative AI to imitate an artist’s style remain open.
Personality rights and data protection laws also apply when using artificial intelligence systems. If a person wishes to create a stylized image from a photograph in which one or more people are recognizable, consent of the individuals concerned is required, as they may remain identifiable in the resulting image. In the absence of consent, there may be no overriding interest or other applicable legal basis to justify sharing the image.