Hayao Miyazaki on the use of AI: “I am utterly disgusted”
The rise of AI in this age is seemingly gaining more traction by the day. The developments are also bringing about an air of anxiety in the creative industries in individuals who believe that their jobs are at risk. Artists and writers’ work is being replicated by AI machines. However, one person who argues that machines will never be able to give artwork and writing the genuine feel of a human being is Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki.
In an online clip, we see a group of designers and animators showing Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki their ‘creation’ of an AI machine that can animate images. It’s an admittedly horrific image of a fleshy monster-looking creature straight out of Resident Evil or Silent Hill dragging itself along the floor.
“It looks like it’s dancing,” the presenter says with desperation. “It’s moving by using its head. It doesn’t feel any pain and has no concept of protecting its head. It uses its head like a leg. This movement is so creepy and could be applied to a zombie video game. Artificial intelligence could present us grotesque movements that we humans can’t imagine.”
Now, why on earth this presenter decided to show this particular video to one of the greatest animators of all time remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Miyazaki is less than impressed, if not downright disgusted. He takes a moment to compose his thoughts and then proceeds to rain down hell on the AI creators.
“Every morning, not in recent days, I see my friend who has a disability,” Miyazaki recalls. “It’s so hard for him just to do a high five; his arm with stiff muscle can’t reach out to my hand. Now, thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is.”
An awkward silence gathers in the room before Miyazaki drills the point home even further. “I am utterly disgusted,” he says. If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it, but I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
The next shot is of the presenter looking rather sheepish and struggling to strum up an explanation for the ridiculous programme. He tries, “This is just our experiment. We don’t intend to do anything by showing it to the world.” When Suziki asks the group what their aim is, one replies, “We want to build a machine that can draw pictures like humans do.”
Evidently, the machine was barely capable of animating a human-like creature, which led to Miyazaki’s scorn. He finishes the clip by saying, “I feel like we are nearing the end of times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.” This video is some years old, so we dread to think what the Ghibli legend might say about today’s onslaught of AI…
