Werner Herzog about AI generated films: “You look completely dead”

Legendary filmmaker and “Here is Honey Boo Boo” Superfan Werner Herzog can see the beauty in almost everything, with two remarkable exceptions: Chicken And art that was created by artificial intelligence. During a performance in the podcast “Conan O’Brien needs a friend”, “ Duke spoke of the incredible possibilities presented by technological progress, however, complained about the sheer lifelessness of his application in areas that require humanity.

Much of the conversation between O’Brien and Herzog was about the idea of ​​the truth (suitable for a man who has just written a book called The future of truth), which inevitably led her into a conversation about AI. Duke, a fascinating mix of a man who is removed from the technology, but is also filled with endless miracles above everything, has not rejected the technology, but has some serious concerns.

“Ai, I don’t want to take it completely because it has wonderful, great opportunities,” he said, quoting his potential use in scientific areas. “But at the same time it is already on the way to take over the war. … It will be the overwhelming face of the warfare of the future.”

He also simply cannot find much value in generative KIs in works of art.

“I saw films, short films that were created completely by artificial intelligence. History, acting, everything. They look completely dead. They are stories, but they have no soul,” he said. “They are empty and soulless. They know that it is the most common and lowest denominator of what is filling billions and billions of information on the Internet. The common denominator and nothing that goes beyond this common denominator can be found in these inventions.”

These inventions of AI are a real fascination for Duke. In his new book, After an excerpt from the new republicHe writes AI “sees his occasional mistakes and depends on strategies and decisions that have not been programmed by humans”, and states that his editions “arrive with a small pinch of chaos and inaccuracy, as is also embedded in human nature.”

As he spoke to O’Brien, Duke told how AI creates these falsehoods and how we have to navigate them. “And of course cheat, do, propagate yourself – all of these things are like a nemesis. It is out there and we have to be aware of it.” His advice? Just take nothing to the nominal value. “Here too, I say, if you are curious and access different sources, you will quickly find that this will be invented.”

In general, Herzog is not much for technology. He had no cell phone until he had to get one after his explanation after he could not call up his car (an 18-year-old Ford Explorer) from a parking garage in Dublin without downloading an app. But it’s not that he fears it. He just doesn’t trust him. “Everything that comes via your cell phone or laptop, e -mails, whatever – you have to distrust yourself, you have to doubt,” he said to O’Brien. In response, O’Brien offered that he received updates on his phone when his cats use the cat toilet because they are connected to the Internet, and suggested that it should be illegal that everything needs an app to work.

Herzog spoke about how natural navigation technology is for younger people, how effortlessly discover a phishing email that he could not identify. He compared the instincts of humans to use technology with those of prehistoric men looking for food and learning to avoid toxic berries. “They had a naturally acquired suspicion of things, and it was so natural that we can certainly assume that they don’t hate nature,” he said. “They only knew how to navigate. And it is the same – you don’t have to hate the internet and the cell phone and whatever in these new media, you only have to maintain a complete measure.”

All of this comes from Herzog’s greater search for the truth that is of central importance for his new book. On the podcast he rated: “Nobody knows what the truth is.” And in a way it doesn’t matter. O’Brien and Duke share this in art, the sheer truth is sometimes less important than a good story. But in the rest of the world, the concept of truth is just as difficult to grasp and the cause of conflict and dispute. Whose truth do we work?

“The truth is not a point somewhere in the distance,” says Herzog. “It is more of a process of looking for it, more closely, doubts.” O’Brien added: “Emotions bring us to a truth, sometimes facts cannot deliver.” Maybe that’s the reason why the AI ​​art falls so flat. The truth lies in the emotion that conveys and provokes the work. AI has nothing to offer.