Cyber criminals can exploit Ghibli AI art trend: Tamil Nadu Police cautions public
"Scammers may use popular Ghibli characters and art as bait in phishing scams. These fraudulent campaigns often involve fake contests, giveaways, or free download links for Ghibli art.
Representative Image
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Police's cybercrime wing has issued a warning to the public to be wary of cyber fraudsters misusing the Ghibli AI art trend, popular on social media sites.
According to the police, many websites offering free downloads of Ghibli art or other media are often fronts for malicious cyber activities and users who download content from these sources may unwittingly infect their devices with harmful software, including viruses, malware, or ransomware, leading to potential data loss and identity theft.
"Scammers may use popular Ghibli characters and art as bait in phishing scams. These fraudulent campaigns often involve fake contests, giveaways, or free download links for Ghibli art. Clicking on these links can lead to the theft of personal data, financial information, or even financial losses," the police said, adding that the public need to stay vigilant and informed about the risks involved in downloading and sharing content from unreliable sources.
Ever since OpenAI introduced the image generation tool for ChatGPT, millions of social media users started using the tool to generate their photographs into Japanese Ghibli studio illustrations that caught on.
Terming the trend alarming, an official communication from the Tamil Nadu Police said, "The Ghibli AI Art Generators use the input of users who upload selfies or images and the AI generates anime-like versions based on user facial features that amuse the user. However, users often neglect or underestimate the potential dangers surrounding the Ghibli art and feed personal biometric data into the AI system. The AI studies, analyses and stores the faces, expressions and backgrounds."
These uploads are used to train the AI smarter without taking any clear consent from the user. Continuous uploading will expand the knowledge base of the AI, the cautionary note from the police said.
"Users cannot easily delete the submitted data and there is no guaranteed way to request deletion in case of image uploads. The unauthorised use and distribution of Ghibli's artwork across digital platforms put both individuals and businesses at risk," stated the official release.
