Hopping on the Ghibli-style image trend? Experts worry about data and personal privacy — here’s what to keep in mind

OpenAI last week rolled out its Studio Ghibli-style image generation feature on ChatGPT, and on April 1, Sam Altman said the artificial intelligence (AI) platform had registered 10 lakh users in just an hour!

The craze has become viral, with Ghibli-styled images flooding the internet and social media feeds — but all this comes at some cost. While you may agree or disagree on the copyrights of the original Japanese studio; for all users, data and privacy do matter.

Experts Worry About Data and Privacy

Thus, as many AI enthusiasts hopped onto ChatGPT and Grok 3 and uploaded their personal photos to transform into the Ghibli-style anime art, privacy experts online feel that there are some concerns about personal data.

Critics warned that OpenAI and Grok may use the flood of personal photos, to train their AI models using fresh facial data that has now come in voluntarily. As users flock to the platform to upload their photos by choice, the company is bypassing legal restrictions applied for websites online that prohibits scraping of data, they said.

Notably, the ChatGPT-maker is legally bound under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations to provide justification for scraping images online as “legitimate interest” i.e. necessary and ensure that user privacy is safeguarded and transparency ensured. When you upload photos to ChatGPT for Ghibli transformation, you agree to user terms that may bypass such protections and requirements.

‘Think Before You Upload’ Says Himachal Cyber Warriors

In a thread on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), cyber security dedicated account, called Himachal Cyber Warriors warned people to “think before you Ghibli”, adding that the “cute Ghibli-style selfie might cost more than you think”.

What did the account raise concerns over? Misuse or manipulation of uploaded photos, AI training without explicit consent, and likely sale to data brokers for tragetted ads.