Say Cheese to the Surveillance Engine

It started with a simple prompt — “Turn me into a Studio Ghibli character.” A few taps, a quick upload, and within seconds, your face was reimagined: dewy-eyed, softly lit, and dropped into a dreamscape worthy of Spirited Away.

It didn’t take long for the internet to do what it does best: flood the timelines. TikTok transformed into a carousel of anime avatars twirling in enchanted forests. Instagram turned into a parade of pastel portraits; toddlers floating among soot sprites, couples strolling through floating cities. In a matter of days, OpenAI’s latest upgrade to its image generation tool, baked right into ChatGPT’s GPT-4o model, had sparked a full-blown aesthetic movement.