How Those Studio Ghibli Memes Are a Sign of OpenAI's Trump-Era Shift

In one sense, the pivot has been a long time coming. OpenAI began its decade-long life as a research lab that kept its tools under strict lock and key; when it did release early chatbots and image generation models, they had strict content filters that aimed to prevent misuse. But for years it has been widening the accessibility of its tools in an approach it calls "iterative deployment." The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 was the most popular example of this strategy, which the company believes is necessary to help society adapt to the changes AI is bringing. Still, in another sense, the change to OpenAI's model behavior policies has a more recent proximate cause: the 2024 election of President Donald Trump, and the cultural shift that has accompanied the new administration.