Is AI-Generated Art 'an Insult to Life'?

Set in Fascist Italy before and during World War II, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is 'a magical but distinctly un-Disney-like tale of parenthood, grief, life, death, and war,' writes Decider.

'Using hundreds of puppets with movable silicone skin, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and his small army of animators and puppeteers shot simultaneously on 60 stages, 60 cameras, and 60 sets,' they add, saying he crafted the two-hour movie that premiered on Netflix this month (and in select theatres) into 'a painstaking labor of art.'

So what does he think of AI-generated art?

Guillermo del Toro: I think that art is an expression of the soul. At its best, it is encompassing everything you are. Therefore, I consume, and love, art made by humans. I am completely moved by that.

I am not interested in an illustration made by machines and the extrapolation of information. I talked to Dave McKean, who is a great artist. And he told me, his greatest hope is that AI cannot draw. It can interpolate information, but it cannot draw. It can never capture a feeling, or a countenance, or the softness of a human face, you know? Certainly, if that conversation was being had about film, it would hurt deeply.

I would think it, as [Hayao] Miyazaki says, 'an insult to life itself.'


Variety explains that 'In a viral moment from the 2016 documentary series NHK Special: Hayao Miyazaki — The One Who Never Ends, the eponymous Studio Ghibli co-founder railed against machine-generated animation.'

Miyazaki was shown an animation of a zombie-esque creature created by AI, to which he responded: '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.'

After being informed that one animator was attempting to create a machine that 'draws pictures like humans do,' Miyazaki fired back, 'I feel like we are nearing to the end of the times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.