ChatGPT users freak out after seeing ghostly figures in Ghibli edits. Viral videos
As users turn photos into Studio Ghibli-style art via ChatGPT, many are surprised to find unexpected extra figures appearing in their images
ChatGPT’s viral image generation feature has sparked a social media frenzy incomparable to any other in recent memory. For the last few days, millions of people across the world have been reimagining their daily lives in different art styles - some have turned their family pictures into Renaissance-style portraits, others have transformed pet photographs into cartoons. One style, however, has surpassed others in popularity - the whimsical, hand-drawn animation style of Studio Ghibli.

Over the last few days, social media has been filled with soft, whimsical artwork in the style of Studio Ghibli, the legendary Japanese animation studio behind films like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.
However, some users are now noticing something disturbing in their Ghibli edits - the addition of people not visible in the original pictures.
Ghibli ghosts
After users gave photographs of their friends and family to ChatGPT or other AI tools like Grok to reimagine in Ghibli style, they noticed that the AI had added an extra person to the edited picture. This phenomenon was reported by several people, leaving many wondering about the possibility of ChatGPT detecting ghosts.
One Instagram user transformed a picture of her friends in Ghibli style. The original photo had only four women, but the Ghibli edit by Grok AI showed five women.
“So Ghibli is a ghost hunter,” wrote one person in the comments section. Another said he experienced something similar with Grok.
Makeup artist Barkha Dahra asked Grok to transform her photograph with her husband in a Ghibli-inspired pic. She was shocked when the final result had a third wheel. “Ghibli trend is fun until… it spotted a ghost,” she wrote.
Many other Instagram users shared their Ghibli fails. “Ghost detector,” an Instagram user captioned her post.
Travel vlogger Shishir Deshmukh said he asked ChatGPT to turn his picture into Ghibli artwork. The original image showed him leaning against a car with no other person in sight. However, the ChatGPT result had another man.
“I asked ChatGPT to create Ghibli art and I was shocked at the result. Did ChatGPT spot something which I did not?” Deshmukh asked, adding a ghost emoji.
ABOUT THE AUTHORSanya JainSanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

E-Paper


