“After seeing a brief demo of a grotesque zombie-esquire creature, Miyazaki pauses and says that it reminds him of a friend of his with a disability so severe he can’t even high five. “Thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find [it] interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
Near the end of the clip, after hearing that the animators’ goal is to create a machine that “draws pictures like humans do,” Miyazaki’s comments are even more grim. “I feel like we are nearing to the end of the times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves…””
Admittedly there’s an editorial cut in the end of the clip to make it seem more like Miyazaki is directly responding to the animator in criticizing the “machine” process, but I do think it’s apparent from the video that he also has an aversion to how it’s made.
I don’t find joy in replacing artists wholesale. I think there’s something particularly soul draining about seeing so much online content becoming AI slop.
I’m no AI Luddite, but this fad disgusts me.
