Werner Herzog Slams AI‑Driven Imitators and Defends Real Storytelling

When you’ve spent a lifetime chasing impossible visions across jungles, deserts and the depths of the human psyche, it’s no surprise that Werner Herzog isn’t exactly thrilled about a computer pretending to be him.

In a candid chat with IndieWire, the legendary German filmmaker was asked about a 2025 release titled About a Hero. The movie leans heavily on artificial intelligence: a script stitched together from the director’s own films and a deep‑faked Herzog narrating the whole thing. The result? A digital echo of Herzog’s voice, trying to sound “in the spirit” of his work.

Herzog, who’s still capable of delivering a gravelly, unforgettable line at the age of 84, didn’t mince words. “The intention of this young filmmaker was never to remake any of my films, but to make something in the spirit. I immediately said, ‘You will fail. It is such a stupid idea.’” He added, “It’s phenomenally, abysmally stupid. I will not take part in it.”

What really set off the maestro was the idea that AI could replace the very people he calls “talentless hacks.” He laughed, almost delighted, at the thought of a machine stepping in when “the ad nauseam repetition” of derivative content gets too thick. “It’s so standardized that AI can step in because there’s no real storytelling,” he said, then leaned in, “I welcome AI to replace all the idiots who are into nothing but repeating, repeating, repeating until it’s ad nauseam.”

The director’s disdain isn’t brand‑new. He once warned, “A computer will not make a film as good as mine in 4,500 years,” and in a conversation with Conan O’Brien he praised AI’s scientific marvels while decrying its use in warfare and the arts. “I’ve seen movies, short films, completely created by artificial intelligence. Story, acting, everything. They look completely dead. They are stories, but they have no soul,” he told O’Brien, as reported by Gizmodo. “It’s the most common, lowest denominator of what is filling billions of information on the internet.”

Herzog’s point, bitter as it may sound, isn’t just a personal vendetta against a gimmick. He’s warning that AI, when wielded by those lacking genuine vision, simply automates the production of soulless copies. Truly innovative uses of the technology in cinema are still rare; most of what we see is a hollow echo of something that already exists, stripped of the messy, human spark that makes art resonate.

So, while the next generation of creators may experiment with AI tools, Herzog seems ready to let the machines take over only when they can do the work of the “idiots” who churn out endless, uninspired mimicry. In his eyes, that’s the only place AI belongs—for now.