That Time Hayao Miyazaki Said AI Generated Art Was "An Insult to Life itself"
There’s been a lot of talk about AI art recently and artists who make a living creating art are not happy with it. In fact, they have been protesting Epic’s ArtStation for not banning it. There are a lot of issues that come with AI artwork and one of the greatest animators of all-time has already shared his thoughts on it.
Years ago, Legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli was shown footage AI generated animation, which was pitched as an animation tool. We actually shared this several years ago, but I wanted to reshare it because it’s more relevant now than ever.
This was part of a documentary by Kaku Arakawa documenting work at Studio Ghibli, and after being shown the disturbing and dehumanizing AI animation, Miyazaki said:
"Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. 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 meeting comes to an end after one team at Studio Ghibli admits it wants to create a program that draws like a human. Miyazaki was passionately against this saying:
"I feel like we are nearing the end of times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.”
Now, all these years later this is exactly what AI technology is doing and there’s no doubt that Miyazki is shaking his head in discouragement like lots of other artists out there. But, there will always be people looking to advance technology, regardless of the consequences.