The animated movies that occupied us in our childhoods — from Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.” and Universal’s “Coraline” to Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” — were not only mesmerizing because of their fantastical plots or memorable characters but because the detail with which they portrayed the fictional worlds that enveloped our imaginations was the culmination of hours, weeks, months and years of grueling artistic effort.
In “Monster’s Inc.,” Sully’s vibrant blue mane took 2.8 million individual hairs. “Coraline” took 35 animators and a film crew four years to create and “Spirited Away” included hundreds of thousands of individually drawn frames — and that’s only within the world of animation.
What makes art enjoyable is not only the vibrance it brings to our lives but the acknowledgment that it is the arduous product of the human soul. Each stroke is painted with unwavering dedication, each frame illustrated with relentless conviction and every subtle detail is proof of life.
What makes art beautiful is its humanity.
This March, the official Ole Miss page took its shot at the Studio Ghibli AI art trend. The viral filter used AI-powered illustration to animate photos straight from your camera roll in the style of Hayao Miyazaki — world-renowned animator, award-winning filmmaker and, most recognizably, founder of the beloved Studio Ghibli, which has produced films like “Ponyo,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “The Boy and the Heron.”
Various scenes of Ole Miss life, from the ever-loving Grove to the Walk of Champions, were “Ghibli-fied” into illustrations that looked like cutscenes from “Spirited Away” itself. The post received more than 100 comments, many of which criticized the university’s involvement in a trend that relied on robots over real artists.
To the credit of whoever runs the Ole Miss Instagram account, participating in a viral TikTok trend is a great way to engage with the 178,000 followers that grace the university’s Instagram account. However, the role and usage of AI-produced art must be reevaluated.
The ethical implications of using and supporting algorithms that plagiarize the work of other artists, exact egregious amounts of water waste due to the necessity of cooling AI data centers and detract from the $1.2 trillion art economy built by real people creating real work must be considered.
The utility of AI in education, the job sector and research is profoundly undeniable. However, AI art uses uniquely greater amounts of energy and threatens to undermine the underlying principle of creativity. Unlike asking an algorithm to complete menial tasks, which can carve out time for more beneficial activities, AI art insults the efforts of real-world artists.
Plugging a few words into a prompt is far less labor intensive than spending hours creating a piece of artwork. I worry that the proliferation of AI art will directly harm the incentives our society has to be creative in the first place. Why would you spend time learning how to paint if you could just ask an AI chatbot to create a Da Vinci-level scene for you in a fraction of the time?
It is up to our generation to resist the automation of an industry that channels expressions of basic humanity and inspires creativity. Not only is putting in the effort far more rewarding in the long term, but knowing you do not rely on a robot to make something pretty seems rewarding in itself.
Kadin Collier is a freshman Arabic and international studies double major from Hattiesburg, Miss.
