The whole thing is funny when you look at the full phrase too. Graphical Interchange Format – it’s got both a hard g and a soft g. You could call a gif an image. You could also call it a graphic.
At the end of the day, there really isn’t an answer, and there never will be. It’s a fun debate to fuck around with though
G can make a hard G sound or a soft G sound, the soft G is identical to J.
It’s still a soft G sound though, because the letter is G.