Werner Herzog Calls AI Filmmaking 'Abysmally Stupid' After Deepfake Project

Director Werner Herzog has issued a scathing critique of filmmakers using artificial intelligence to imitate established artists, arguing that such efforts are devoid of genuine creativity. The filmmaker's comments come as a direct response to the rise of generative tools capable of mimicking specific directorial voices and styles.

The catalyst for Herzog's latest condemnation was the 2025 film 'About a Hero.' The project utilized an AI-generated script trained on Herzog's own body of work and featured a deepfaked version of his voice as the narrator. When asked about the attempt to create a movie 'in the spirit' of his filmmaking, Herzog described the endeavor as "phenomenally, abysmally stupid."

A History of Skepticism

Herzog is no stranger to doubting the capabilities of machine learning in the arts. He has previously asserted that a computer would be unable to produce a film as good as his own even if given 4,500 years. While he acknowledges that AI has practical utility within the realm of science, he maintains a hard line regarding aesthetic expression. He views AI-generated art as "dead" and lacking a "soul," characterizing the output as the "lowest denominator" of internet information.

The Human Spark vs. The Algorithm

For Herzog, the danger of generative AI lies in its tendency toward repetition rather than innovation. He argues that the technology is only useful for replacing those he calls "idiots" and "talentless hacks" who produce standardized, repetitive content. "I welcome AI to replace all the idiots who are into nothing but repeating, repeating, repeating until it’s ad nauseam," Herzog stated.

This conflict underscores a growing tension in the industry between the efficiency of mimicry and the human-centric definition of art. Herzog's stance emphasizes that true cinema requires a "human spark" and a level of rawness that cannot be replicated by training models on existing datasets. In his view, while AI can generate stories, they remain hollow shells because they lack the lived experience and intentionality of a human creator. "They look completely dead," he noted. "They are stories, but they have no soul."

The Future of Mimicry

As deepfake technology and Large Language Models (LLMs) become more sophisticated, the industry faces an ongoing debate over the ethics of "style-training" without consent. The case of 'About a Hero' serves as a primary example of the friction that occurs when a director's lifelong aesthetic is reduced to a data set. Whether the industry will move toward stricter protections for artistic identity or embrace the automation of style remains to be seen, but Herzog makes it clear that for him, the algorithm is no substitute for the artist.