It's kind of strange that this clip is making the rounds again. I highly doubt that Miyazaki would have anything nice to say about generative AI, but it's pretty clear to me that the "insult to life itself" comment is referring to the aesthetics of the AI that was presented to him, was it not?
1000%, which drives me crazy whenever this quote gets trotted out without context. In the same video he basically berates the designers for using disability as the basis of a monster/zombie design, and then tells a story about his disabled friend who's in a wheelchair. It's very clear he's mad at what they made and not how they made it.
“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 would like to hear what Miyazaki thinks about these images. The creature he sees in the video was obviously not something making him an AI fan. I would like to know if these images change his opinion about AI, or if he still rejects the idea. Edit: robrtsql was faster, saying the same thing.
I want to believe that even though the context for that 2016 video was much different, he would still feel similarly about today’s AI outputs.
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.
