Werner Herzog says 'stereotypical' AI inferior to human directors

PARIS: Legendary German director Werner Herzog, known for his epic shoots and daring bets, fears nothing on the film set - especially not artificial intelligence, which he tells AFP is "too stupid" to make good movies.

The director of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972), which was perilously filmed in the jungle, and "Fitzcarraldo" (1982), for which he had a 300-tonne boat hauled over a mountain, does not believe artificial intelligence will change the world of cinema.

"It will be a wonderful tool for real estate," the famously eccentric and opinionated 82-year-old German told AFP.

"You can be in Paris, you can sit at home in Paris, and somebody offers you a house in Hawaii, and walks you through it. It's a perfect tool for this.

"But it is not a tool for storytelling," he said.

Asked whether an AI-powered system like ChatGPT could write screenplays, he said he had been impressed by some of its poetry but did not believe it posed a threat to human creation.

"They can do it. If it's stereotypical, yes, they can do it. Or even making films, but it will not make films as good as mine," he said.

"Artificial intelligence is too stupid for that."

Herzog was in Paris during a retrospective of his most recent films at the Pompidou Centre and ahead of the launch of the French edition of his memoirs, "Every Man for Himself and God Against All".

Trump appeal

Turning to politics, he said US president-elect Donald Trump had been consistently underestimated for his appeal in the disenfranchised heartlands of America responsible for his re-election on November 5.

"We have to take Trump seriously because he's a voice of the heartland of America. And he has a majority," he told AFP.

Although he stressed he was not defending the Republican, he praised him for being "the first American president who speaks of the senseless American wars after the Second World War: Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, you name it, Libya.

"He's the only one who has the courage to speak of the senseless wars that have to stop," he said.

Still producing films in his twilight years, including the 2022 documentary "The Fire Within" about vulcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, Herzog said he has also begun to think about securing his legacy.

Despite claiming "no vanity" about his mark on the history of cinema, he said he had been persuaded by his family to set up a foundation that will own all the rights to his films.

"This foundation has a task to preserve the films and to present the films. And that will be way beyond my own physical life and I have accepted it. I have accepted it as part of my duty as a filmmaker," he said.