Imperfect

miyazaki on ai

While I'm cooking up more responses for Matt's re: ai fuels creativity | Mind Over Matt(er), I wanted to zoom in on how he ended his piece:

Finally, I've no doubt that most people reading have seen this in some form, but it's worth included, it's Hayao Miyazaki's thoughts on an artificial intelligence

Having rewatched the full video, my impression is that Miyazaki affirmed how well DWANGO (the company presenting the artificial intelligence model) executed their intention. Take Miyazaki's replies to having watched the presentation:

Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is or whatsoever.

I am utterly disgusted.

I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.

Those remarks slot right into what Kawakami, chairman of DWANGO, saw as potential outcomes for AI models like those presented:

This movement is so creepy, and could be applied to zombie video games.

An artificial intelligence could present us grotesque movements which we humans can't imagine.

Miyazaki continued:

If you want 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.

On top of Miyazaki acknowledging the freedom of creative license beyond his sensibilities, DWANGO's nascent, grotesque, and three-dimensional models strongly deviates from Studio Ghibli's long-running, flat, and two-dimensional art style. Watching the presentation itself and hearing Kawakami say, "This is just our experiment.", further emphasizes said deviation.

Another DWANGO employee replied to Studio Ghibli's producer, Suzuki, who asked what the corporation's ultimate goal was:

Well, we would like to build a machine that can draw pictures like humans do.

His sentiment rings equal parts hilarious and prescient having enjoyed Studio Ghibli season as written in my letter to looper. It hasn't even been a decade since this video was published. Imagine how much better machines will be at drawing pictures like humans do in another decade or less!

The video ends with a few of Miyazaki's opinions:

I feel like we are nearing to the end of times.

We humans are losing faith in ourselves.

How much does "nearing to the end of times" and "losing faith in ourselves" pertain to AI development at large compared to this isolated incident? Even if those opinions pertained to the former, account for how much the memetic Studio Ghibli filter cultivated widespread publicity, creative expression, and appreciation. That praise wasn't just reserved for the capabilities of the underlying technology. It was given to the source material, the people who realized it, and those who remixed it to an entire cultural phenomenon. That derivative artwork inducing global collaboration to help the studio escape containment ought to be a case study in product-market fit.

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