Video games for a more human new year
In December, footage emerged of the Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki visiting the Dwango Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Tokyo. In the clip, which was broadcast as part of an NHK documentary, the director of Spirited Away is shown a video of a computerised humanoid creature that has taught itself to walk by using its head and buttocks to shimmy along the ground. After the presentation Miyazaki sits in thought, before issuing his verdict. "Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever," he says. "I am utterly disgusted."
Miyazaki's delivery has none of the vein-throbbing fury of a Gordon Ramsay - only the life-haunting melancholy of the disappointed father. "I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself," Miyazaki adds. A devastated researcher reels from the blow, and judging by the look on his face may never recover from it.
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