Impossible to miss it. For several days, the photos transformed and generated by artificial intelligence (AI) literally flood social networks. Images created by drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of the Ghibli studio, we went to the “Starter Pack” trend, where we represent ourselves in the form of a 3D figurine, wrapped like a toy and accompanied by some accessories supposed to define us.
In two-three clicks, a small copy and paste of a prompt – the text intended to guide the AI - found on social networks, which you adapt to your sauce and voila. PAF, you have your version of yourself as a figurine. And then that’s it.
Is that all? Not really. These trends Using AI, which follow one another at a high speed in a sort of bolimia as euphoric as it is narcissistic, do not make everyone laugh. Starting with artists and also the planet. This is what the astronaut Thomas Pesquet points out in a publication on network X (formerly Twitter), while relaying a “Starter Pack” that we made of him: “Behind magic, there is a reality that we often forget to look: the environmental cost of these technologies.”
I was sent my starter pack!
We have all seen this funny trend pass on our networks. Thanks to the generative AI, one can now create in one click a figurine in its effigy. It’s stunning, and a little exhilarating, it must be admitted.
But behind the magic ✨, there is a … pic.twitter.com/abbgvors83– Thomas Pesquet (@thom_astro) April 11, 2025
“Starter Pack” how not to pay a graphic designer
You might as well warn at the outset: here, expect that we somewhat do the rageous ambient thugs. Because if it is massively sending and sharing these images generated in a few seconds has, at first glance, nothing too bad, the backwards of the decor is much less fun, in particular with regard to copyright.
The generative AI does not create anything of itself, it is based on models trained to draw from gigantic databases filled with protected works, images or texts, which it is reclaimed and imitates without the consent of the original creators. The latter, in the shadows, have worked for days (even years) to find a unique style, which in no time is reused and massively shared, without remuneration for the key. The legal vagueness does not allow artists to perceive any copyright. In short, hours of work … in the wind.
For an average user, it is easy to clear. Anyway, you did not plan to call on an artist. The opportunity, free of all, to create a funny image presented itself to you, so it is easy to succumb to it.
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This is also the whole problem: by participating in a trend in this way, we trivialize, without realizing it, the replacement of artists by machines. Companies are already rubbing their hands. Because if you would not have spent a penny for such a smooth and lifeless illustration, just there to laugh at five minutes before it disappears in the depths of your photo gallery, companies and public figures, they benefit from the trend To do their communication, without having to mandate (and pay) any artist. A trivialization which, over time, gets used to an aesthetic generated artificially and which could sound the death knell of the illustrators.
And if you tell yourself that artists perhaps perceive generative AI as a tool more than a threat, we stop you right away: this is false. According to an investigation by the Society of Authors in the graphic and plastic arts (ADAGP) and the Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL), two professional copyright defense organizations, 65% of artists say they are clearly opposed to their works are used to train generative AI, even against remuneration.
Especially since they have sometimes taken up for political purposes. For example, the White House took advantage of it, on March 27 in a publication on X, to stage the arrest for drug trafficking of a Migrant Dominican in tears. On the side of the Near East, it was the Israeli army that surfed the trend and created a large controversy, after the publication of a tweet with four visuals inspired by the style of the Ghibli studio.
https://t.co/pvdinshxs pic.twitter.com/bw5yuci2xl
– The White House (@Whitehouse) March 27, 2025
Chat-j has the planet
The other problematic component of the massive use of tools based on artificial intelligence, whether to generate images of “Starter Pack” style or do research, directly affects the future of humanity. It sounds a little fine of the world and catastrophism, but the figures are mind -blowing.
A single image generated in this way would waste for example up to … 3.45 liters of water, used to cool overpowered servers that overheat each search. Imagine the overall impact of trends also massive observed in recent weeks. Millions of liters of water wasted in a few days, to have a simple self-image in a false box.
The impact of the phenomenon of the images generated and reproducing the style of the Ghibli studio was even felt on the OpenAi servers: the trend has melted the graphic processors. And again, this is only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to water, AI uses monstrous quantities of electricity, with a significant impact on released greenhouse gas. Only one request made to Chatgpt is equivalent, as an indication, to leave a light on all day. Some research and it is the Palace of Versailles in your living room.
Future projections are not more pleasing. The carbon emissions linked to AI could increase by 60% by 2040, driven by the insatiable appetite of consumers and trends inspired by the generative AI.
So, generating your “Starter Pack” image is it worth throwing three bottles of water at the window at least? We leave you alone judge. Is it worth distorting works, without any remuneration for its creators? Again, we leave you alone judge. Hayao Miyazaki, co -founder of the Ghibli studio, must in any case tear out his hair by seeing his dreamlike creations reused in this way, used to destroy a planet which he has, in his works, so much sought to protect from human absurdity.
