The blowback on AI-made artwork and animation continues – now director Guillermo del Toro has condemned the practice.
When asked his thoughts on artificial intelligence-made art and animation, del Toro said (via Decider) “It’s an insult to life itself.”
Guillermo del Toro has been promoting his newly released, stop-animation and hand-crafted Pinocchio film — arguably the polar opposite of machine-generated art or animation.
“I consume and love art made by humans,” del Toro said. “I am completely moved by that. And I am not interested in illustrations made by machines and the extrapolation of information. I talked to Dave McKean, a great artist. He told me his greatest hope is that AI cannot draw.”
He added, “AI can interpolate information but it can never draw. It can never capture a feeling or a countenance or the softness of a human face. If that conversation was being had about film it would hurt deeply and…as Miyazaki says, it’d be an insult to life itself.”
It seems even massive, large and beautiful anime elf breasts cannot sway creators like Guillermo del Toro or the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, who also criticized AI art.
In a 2016 documentary, the Studio Ghibli co-founder also said machine-generated animation is “an insult to life itself.” When shown an AI-made animation of a zombie-like creature, Miyazaki said:
“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.”
When told an animator was trying to make AI that “draws pictures like humans do,” Miyazaki rebuked him: “I feel like we are nearing to the end of the times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.”
Miyazaki and Ghibli’s new film, How Do You Live, is premiering in theaters in Japan starting July 14, 2023. Meanwhile Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio just started streaming on Netflix.
This is Niche Culture. In this column, we regularly cover anime, movies, geek culture, and things related to video games.
