The director of "Spirited Away" says AI animation is an "insult to life itself"

When shown an animation generated by artificial intelligence, famed animator Hayao Miyazaki was not impressed. "I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself," said the man behind movies like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, who was shown an AI-generated animation of a human-like being "walking on his head" using creepy movements that might be applied to, say, zombies in a video game. Referring to his experiences with a disabled friend, Miyazaki noted how difficult it was for him to execute something as simple as a high-five. "Now, thinking of him, I can't watch this stuff and think it's interesting," he said. "Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. If you really want to make creepy stuff you can go ahead and do it.