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Copyright Questions Loom as ChatGPT's Ghibli-Style Images Go Viral 

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)
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)
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Copyright Questions Loom as ChatGPT's Ghibli-Style Images Go Viral 

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)
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)

The release of the latest image generator on OpenAI's ChatGPT has triggered an online flood of memes featuring images done in the style of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese studio behind classic animated films like "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Princess Mononoke."

The virality of these images, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even changing his profile picture on X to match the style, immediately raised questions about copyright infringement by the ChatGPT maker, which already faces lawsuits regarding the use of source material without permission.

Since the release on Wednesday, AI-generated images depicting Studio Ghibli versions of Elon Musk with US President Donald Trump, "The Lord of the Rings," and even a recreation of the September 11 attacks have gone viral across online platforms.

On Thursday, the White House took part by posting on X a Ghibli-style image of a weeping alleged felon being handcuffed by a US immigration officer before her deportation.

Originally intended to be available on the platform for free, Altman said the huge success of the new generator was unexpected and meant the tool would remain limited to paid users for now.

It was already possible to generate images with ChatGPT, but the latest version is powered by GPT-4o, the company's highest-performing model, and allows sophisticated results to be obtained through very succinct requests, which was not the case before.

After the viral trend, a video from 2016 resurfaced in which Studio Ghibli's legendary director Hayao Miyazaki is seen lashing out during an AI demonstration by staff.

"I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself," an English translation of his remarks said in the video.

The trend "is especially insidious and malicious because of how outspokenly scathing Miyazaki has been toward the tech," wrote artist and illustrator Jayd "Chira" Ait-Kaci on Bluesky.

"It's always about contempt for artists, every time," Ait-Kaci added.

OpenAI is facing a barrage of lawsuits over copyright infringements, including one major case with the New York Times and others from artists, musicians and publishers.

The company is aggressively lobbying the White House and Congress to make the use of copyrighted content by AI companies part of the fair use doctrine.

Fair use allowances already apply to search engines or in the case of satire and memes online, and allow companies to freely use copyrighted material without permission.

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that OpenAI is close to finalizing a $40 billion funding round led by Japan's SoftBank Group that would be the biggest funding round ever for a startup.

OpenAI has projected its annual revenue could exceed $12.7 billion in 2025, up from $3.7 billion expected this year.

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Technology

US Allows Nvidia to Send Advanced AI Chips to China with Restrictions

An Nvidia logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
An Nvidia logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Allows Nvidia to Send Advanced AI Chips to China with Restrictions

An Nvidia logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
An Nvidia logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. (Reuters)

The US Commerce Department on Tuesday opened the door for Nvidia to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips in China with restrictions, following through on a policy shift announced last month by President Donald Trump.

The change would permit Nvidia to sell its powerful H200 chip to Chinese buyers if certain conditions are met -- including proof of "sufficient" US supply -- while sales of its most advanced processors would still be blocked.

However, uncertainty has grown over how much demand there will be from Chinese companies, as Beijing has reportedly been encouraging tech companies to use homegrown chips.

Chinese officials have informed some firms they would only approve buying H200 chips under special circumstances, such as development labs or university research, news website The Information reported Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

The Information had previously reported that Chinese officials were calling on companies there to pause H200 purchases while they deliberated requiring them to buy a certain ratio of AI chips made by Nvidia rivals in China.

In its official update on Tuesday, the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security said it had changed the licensing review policy for H200 and similar chips from a presumption of denial to handling applications case-by-case.

Trump announced in December an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow Nvidia to export its H200 chips to China, with the US government getting a 25-percent cut of sales.

The move marked a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden's administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.

Democrats in Congress have criticized the move as a huge mistake that will help China's military and economy.

- Chinese chips -

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has advocated for the company to be allowed to sell some of its more advanced chips in China, arguing the importance of AI systems around the world being built on US technology.

The chips -- graphic processing units or GPUs -- are used to train the AI models that are the bedrock of the generative AI revolution launched with the release of ChatGPT in 2022.

The GPU sector is dominated by Nvidia, now the world's most valuable company thanks to frenzied global demand and optimism for AI.

H200s are roughly 18 months behind the US company's most state-of-the-art offerings, which will still be off-limits to China.

Nvidia's Huang has repeatedly warned that China is just "nanoseconds behind" the United States as it accelerates the development of domestically produced advanced chips.

On Wednesday, leading Chinese AI startup Zhipu said it had used homegrown Huawei chips to train its new image generator.

Zhipu AI described its tool as "the first state-of-the-art multimodal model to complete the entire training process on a domestically produced chip".

The startup went public in Hong Kong last week and its shares have since soared 75 percent -- one of several dazzling recent initial public offerings by Chinese chip and generative AI companies, as high hopes for the sector outweigh concerns of a potential market crash.

Technology

Apple Rolls Out Creator Studio to Boost Services Push, Adds AI Features

A customer compares his old iPhone with the newly launched iPhone 17 pro max at an Apple retail store in Delhi, India, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A customer compares his old iPhone with the newly launched iPhone 17 pro max at an Apple retail store in Delhi, India, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Apple Rolls Out Creator Studio to Boost Services Push, Adds AI Features

A customer compares his old iPhone with the newly launched iPhone 17 pro max at an Apple retail store in Delhi, India, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A customer compares his old iPhone with the newly launched iPhone 17 pro max at an Apple retail store in Delhi, India, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Apple on Tuesday unveiled Apple Creator Studio, a new subscription bundle of professional creative software priced at $12.99 a month or $129 a year, as the iPhone maker steps up its push into paid services for creators, students and professionals.

The company has used its services business, which includes its Apple ‌Music and ‌iCloud services, to drive ‌growth ⁠in recent ‌years, helping counter slower hardware growth and generate recurring revenue.

Apple Creator Studio bundles some of the company's best-known creative tools into a single subscription, including Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro ⁠and Pixelmator Pro across Mac and iPad.

The ‌package also adds premium ‍content and ‍new AI-powered features to Apple's productivity apps ‍Keynote, Pages and Numbers, while digital whiteboarding app Freeform will gain enhanced features later.

Final Cut Pro will offer new tools such as transcript-based search, visual search and beat detection to ⁠speed up video editing, while Logic Pro introduces AI-powered features like Synth Player and Chord ID to assist with music creation.

The company's Photoshop-alternative Pixelmator Pro will be available on iPad for the first time and will offer Apple Pencil support.

The subscription launches January 28 on ‌the App Store, Apple said.

Technology

Social Media Harms Teens, Watchdog Warns, as France Weighs Ban

The TikTok app logo is seen in this illustration taken January 16, 2025. (Reuters)
The TikTok app logo is seen in this illustration taken January 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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Social Media Harms Teens, Watchdog Warns, as France Weighs Ban

The TikTok app logo is seen in this illustration taken January 16, 2025. (Reuters)
The TikTok app logo is seen in this illustration taken January 16, 2025. (Reuters)

Social media harms the mental health of adolescents, particularly girls, France's health watchdog said Tuesday as the country debates banning children under 15 from accessing the immensely popular platforms.

The results of an expert scientific review on the subject were announced after Australia became the first country to prohibit big platforms including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for under 16s last month, while other nations consider following its lead.

Using social media is not the sole cause of the declining mental health of teenagers, but its negative effects are "numerous" and well documented, the French public health watchdog ANSES wrote in its opinion, the result of five years of work by a committee of experts.

France is currently debating two bills, one backed by President Emmanuel Macron, that would ban social media for under 15s.

The ANSES opinion recommended "acting at the source" to ensure that children can only access social networks "designed and configured to protect their health".

This means that the platforms would have to change their personalized algorithms, persuasive techniques and default settings, according to the agency.

"This study provides scientific arguments for the debate about social networks in recent years: it is based on 1,000 studies," the expert panel's head Olivia Roth-Delgado told a press conference.

Social media can create an "unprecedented echo chamber" that reinforces stereotypes, promotes risky behavior and promotes cyberbullying, the ANSES opinion said.

The content also portrays an unrealistic idea of beauty via digitally altered images that can lead to low self-esteem in girls, which creates fertile ground for depression or eating disorders, it added.

Girls -- who use social media more than boys -- are subjected to more of the "social pressure linked to gender stereotypes," the opinion said.

This means girls are more affected by the dangers of social media -- as are people with pre-existing mental health conditions, it added.

On Monday, tech giant Meta urged Australia to rethink its teen social media ban, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 Instagram, Facebook and Threads accounts under the new law.

Meta said parents and experts were worried about the ban isolating young people from online communities, and driving some to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet.