Brain Food #863: Studio Ghibli, AI, and the cost of efficiency

The Jevons Paradox suggests that tools and technological advancements that are designed to bring more efficiency into our lives end up having the opposite effect. Fuel efficiency gains increase fuel use, leading to an overconsumption of resources. More highways that fit more cars encourage more people to drive on them, leading to congestion. The introduction of domestic appliances increased work and decreased leisure time, often as a direct result of their maintenance or use—think of loading and emptying a dishwasher. Today, the natural suspicion, or conclusion, is that AI will have the same effect. Efficiency takes away barriers, and gives people the chance to do more of something, because it is now easy and accessible.

These past few days, the internet has been flooded with AI-generated visuals in the style of Studio Ghibli. The process is easy: you upload a photo to an AI tool and give it a prompt so it reproduces it in the iconic studio’s animation aesthetic. Beyond the ethical and legal implications of this—Is it pastiche? Is it plagiarism?—there is another question to consider. What is the cost of efficiency? Of obtaining something or getting something done easily, without friction?

Studio Ghibli’s co-creator and mastermind, Hayao Miyazaki, is a great believer in the torture of the work. Like most creators, he is a perfectionist and, therefore, hard to please. His one-liners on being an artist are hilariously bleak. There is a moment in the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness where he says, “Over here is the chest I keep my hopes and dreams in.” He leans into it, facing away from the camera. “It’s empty.”

Miyazaki’s philosophy has been consistent: “Do everything by hand, even when using the computer.” Most Studio Ghibli productions are hand-drawn, with CGI used sparingly, despite the ease that new technologies brought to the creation of animation. Therein lies the hidden value in the difficulty of gaining something. Films like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are masterpieces, combining the magic of storytelling with the handcrafted nature of artistry. They are all the more impressive because they are hand-drawn, a rare combination of creative vision and mastery. They capture the value of time, something efficiency tools try to remove—the time taken to learn a craft, and the time taken to apply it.

Had it been hard to turn any image into a Studio Ghibli one, perhaps only a handful of people ...