Privacy isn’t just a feature—it’s a right. 🚨
The 'Ghibli Effect' is a perfect example of how centralized AI tools exploit your data without transparency. Every image you upload feeds into systems that store, analyze, and use your data without your control.

But what if AI could generate art, insights, and more—without storing, tracking, or exploiting your photos?
With decentralized AI, your data stays yours. No hidden storage, no unwanted surveillance. The future of AI should empower users, not exploit them.

Decentralized AI ensures privacy isn't optional—it’s inherent.

#DigitalPrivacy #OwnYourData #DecentralizedAI #RainfallAI #GhibliTrend

🚨 Most people haven't realized that the Ghibli Effect is not only an AI copyright controversy but also OpenAI's PR trick to get access to thousands of new personal images; here's how:

To get their own Ghibli (or Sesame Street) version, thousands of people are now voluntarily uploading their faces and personal photos to ChatGPT. As a result, OpenAI is gaining free and easy access to many thousands of new faces to train its AI models.

Some people will argue that this is irrelevant because OpenAI could simply scrape the same images from the internet and use them to train its AI models. This is not true, for two reasons:

1. Privacy “Bypass”

In places like the EU, when OpenAI scrapes personal images from the internet, it relies on legitimate interest as a lawful ground to process personal data (Article 6.1.f of the GDPR).

As such, it cannot harm people or go against their interests, and therefore, it must take additional protective measures, including potentially refraining from training its models with these images (see my previous articles on the topic, including on Opinion 28/2024). Other data protection laws specify additional protections in the case of scraped images, including for images of minors.

However, when people voluntarily upload these images, they give their consent to OpenAI to process them (Article 6.1.a of the GDPR). This is a different legal ground that gives more freedom to OpenAI, and the legitimate interest balancing test no longer applies.

Moreover, OpenAI's privacy policy explicitly states that the company collects personal data input by users to train its AI models when users haven't opted out (*link to opt out below - check out my newsletter article).

2. Fresh New Images

My second argument for why this was a clever privacy trick is that people are uploading new images, including family photos, intimate pictures, and images that likely weren't on social media before, just to feel part of the viral trend.

OpenAI is gaining free and easy access to these images, and only they will have the originals. Social media platforms and other AI companies will only see the “Ghiblified” version.

Moreover, the trend is ongoing, and people are learning that when they want a fun avatar of themselves, they can simply upload their pictures to ChatGPT. They no longer need third-party providers for that.

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OpenAI obtained these new images voluntarily using a simple PR trick. What trick?

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