--- title: "Werner Herzog Demolishes Talentless Hacks Who Use AI to Imitate Other Filmmakers" description: "Legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog tore apart a film that used AI to imitate his distinct style and narration." date: "2026-09-12" modified: "2026-09-12" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/werner-herzog-demolishes-talentless-hacks-who-use-ai-to-imitate-other-filmmakers" categories: - "Art" - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" --- # Werner Herzog Demolishes Talentless Hacks Who Use AI to Imitate Other Filmmakers ![Werner Herzog in conversation with Jerry Saltz.]() *John Lamparski/Getty Images* The legendary German director Werner Herzog had a few choice words about other so-called "filmmakers" who use AI to imitate their inspirations — one of those inspirations being himself. In an [interview]() with *IndieWire*, the 84-year-old — whose wide-ranging filmography includes 1982's "Fitzcarraldo," 2009's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," and 1979's "Nosferatu the Vampyre**"** — was asked about a 2025 movie called "About a Hero," which made heavy use of AI to evoke the style of his films. It gets even more on the nose than that: on top of using an AI-generated script trained on his movies, it also featured AI-deepfaked Herzog as the narrator. The flesh and blood director didn't sound impressed. "The intention of this young filmmaker was never to remake any \[of my films\], but making something in the spirit. And I immediately said, 'You will fail. It is such a stupid idea,'" he said, in what we can imagine was his trademark husky voice. "'It's phenomenally, abysmally stupid,'" Herzog drove home. "'I will not take part in it.'" Herzog seemed to venture that if AI is useful for anything, it's replacing the talentless hacks. "It's so standardized that AI can step in because there's not real storytelling," Herzog sneered. "It's mimicry of something that has happened before." "And I welcome AI to replace all the idiots who are into nothing but repeating, repeating, repeating until it's ad nauseam," he told *IndieWire*. "When it's ad nauseam, please, please, please let AI step in and do the job." When it comes to artists, the irony of a technology like AI, which promises to let users create virtually anything they want, is that rather than realizing their creativity, it instead often ends up [exposing how]() [little of it they actually possess](). Truly interesting uses of AI in art are few and far between; by and large it simply automates the process of churning out something unoriginal, only without the human spark or rawness unique to all of us that can elevate a work. This isn't the first time Herzog — who provocatively proclaimed that a "computer will not make a film as good as mine in 4,500 years," — has unloaded on AI. In a [conversation]() with the comedian Conan O'Brien last year, he praised the tech's "magnificent abilities" in applications like science, but sounded grave about how AI is being used in warfare. He was no less despondent about its intrusion in 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 quoted by *Gizmodo*](). "You know it is the most common, lowest denominator of what is filling billions and billions of informations on the internet," he continued. "The common denominator and nothing beyond this common denominator can be found in these fabrications." **More on AI:** [*Gal Godot Starring in Heavily AI-Generated Movie About the Glories of Bitcoin*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()