"Change to Ghibli Style" Profile Pictures Running Wild... Any Issues with Portrait Rights?

Surge in Users Amid Image Transformation Craze
Portrait Rights Issues Raised Alongside Copyright Concerns

Amid the sensational popularity of OpenAI's new image generation feature, concerns and worries about the possibility of some users' photos transferred to OpenAI being used for AI training with regard to portrait rights are relatively low. In particular, while there is significant interest in copyright issues related to Japan's representative animation studio Studio Ghibli, known for its unique warm art style, users' privacy protection issues are being overshadowed by the trend craze.

As OpenAI's new image generation feature gains tremendous popularity, some users have pointed out that concerns about the possibility of portrait rights of photos uploaded to OpenAI being used for AI training are relatively low. The photo is an AI image that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, posted on his X. X (X)

On the 4th, Yonhap News reported an article arguing that due to the great interest in Studio Ghibli's copyright amid the ChatGPT craze, discussions and attention to individual portrait rights are low. According to the article, OpenAI is acquiring a vast amount of user photo data worldwide through ChatGPT's image generation feature.

According to data platform company IGAWorks, the daily active users of ChatGPT in Korea increased by 56% last month, surpassing 1.25 million. This indicates that the image transformation trend contributed to this growth. Amid this, concerns about personal information and portrait rights arising from users inputting their photos into OpenAI have emerged in some quarters. In particular, OpenAI allows free, Plus, and Pro user data to be used for AI training. To prevent this, users must control their data settings.

ChatGPT Surpasses 500 Million Subscribers in 2 Years and 4 Months Since Launch

Earlier, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on the 31st of last month that ChatGPT users increased by 1 million in just one hour. Since launching the ChatGPT service in November 2022, the number of subscribers has exceeded 500 million in just 2 years and 4 months. Analysts suggest that the photo transformation craze brought by the launch of 'ChatGPT-4o Image Generation' played a major role in this rapid user growth.

The design specialty media 'Yanko Design' published an editorial titled "How Japan's Copyright Law Allowed ChatGPT to Blatantly Steal Studio Ghibli's Works" on its website on the 31st of last month. Yanko Design website

Meanwhile, along with recent Studio Ghibli copyright issues, individual portrait rights issues have also been raised. Assuming arithmetically that about 450,000 daily ChatGPT users each perform image transformation once, OpenAI acquires at least 450,000 portrait photos daily. Photo style transformation is hugely popular not only in Korea but globally, so from a global perspective, the scale of image data collected by OpenAI through this image transformation trend is estimated to be much larger. The problem is that when users input their photos, these photos may be used for OpenAI's data training. Especially, it is expected that OpenAI has accumulated much more image data than before due to the 'Ghibli art style transformation' craze.

Regarding portrait rights, an official from the domestic AI industry stated, "OpenAI is unlikely to use faces directly considering portrait rights infringement issues, but it is highly likely to analyze images at the pixel level and use them as AI training data." He added, "Users can directly control whether their data is used for training through settings, so they can block data provision in advance if desired, but most users are unaware beforehand, so a large amount of photos is expected to be used for AI training." This points out the need for users to be aware of their portrait rights and privacy protection.

Meanwhile, the Personal Information Protection Commission stated that no infringement reports against OpenAI have been received so far. In particular, the Commission maintains the position that the privacy policy should be considered upheld unless reports are filed that OpenAI used users' photos without permission for commercial purposes or secondary processing.