The latest update from OpenAI comes on the heels of Google’s release of a similar AI image feature in its Gemini Flash model, which also sparked a viral moment earlier in March when users utilized it to remove watermarks from images.

The new AI image features from OpenAI and Google make it easier than ever to recreate the styles of copyrighted works, simply by typing a text prompt. Together, these tools seem to reignite concerns at the core of several lawsuits against generative AI model developers. If these companies are training on copyrighted works, are they violating copyright law?

According to Evan Brown, an intellectual property lawyer at the law firm Neal & McDevitt, products like GPT-4o’s native image generator operate in a legal gray area today. Style is not explicitly protected by copyright, according to Brown, meaning OpenAI does not appear to be breaking the law by generating images that resemble Studio Ghibli movies.

However, Brown suggests that it is plausible OpenAI achieved this likeness by training its model on millions of frames from Ghibli’s films. Even if that were the case, several courts are still deciding whether training AI models on copyrighted works falls under fair use protections.

“I think this raises the same question that we’ve been asking ourselves for a couple of years now,” said Brown in an interview. “What are the copyright infringement implications of going out, crawling the web, and copying into these databases?”

The New York Times and several publishers are in active lawsuits against OpenAI, claiming the company trained its AI models on copyrighted works without proper attribution or payment. Similar claims have been brought in lawsuits against other leading AI companies, including Meta and AI image-generation startup Midjourney.

In a statement to TechCrunch, an OpenAI spokesperson says that while ChatGPT refuses to replicate “the style of individual living artists,” OpenAI does permit it to replicate “broader studio styles.” However, it is worth noting that there are living artists who are credited with pioneering their studio’s unique styles, such as Studio Ghibli’s co-founder, Hayao Miyazaki.

Evidently, users have also been able to use GPT-4o’s native image-generation feature to recreate styles from other studios and artists. Someone created a Marc Andreessen portrait in the style of Dr. Seuss, and a married couple re-created their wedding photos in the style of Pixar.

We tested several popular AI image generators, including ones available in Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, and Playground.ai, to see their ability to match Studio Ghibli’s style. We found that OpenAI’s new image generator created the most accurate replica of the animation studio’s style.

For now, OpenAI’s and Google’s new image features represent a significant leap forward in what AI models can generate, which seems to be driving a surge in usage. OpenAI delayed the rollout of its new image tool to free-tier users on Wednesday, citing high demand. While this may be the most important thing for these companies today, we will have to wait for the courts to weigh in on their legality.