'Humans who create things can beat technology': Touhou Project creator criticises generative AI despite using generative AI in his own videogame

Touhou Project creator Jun'ya 'ZUN' Ōta reckons that while AI can quickly whip up a song or two, nothing quite compares to the human touch.

As reported by Automaton Media, the developer recently appeared on a livestream where he discussed human-created music as generative AI becomes a more popular tool. "From a technical aspect, AI can easily make music. But that's not the point of music, you know," he said. "What actually matters is that there are living humans behind it all. Humans who create things can beat technology just by creating things."

He continued: "However, humans probably can't beat business. But we don't really need business. This idea that people need to do business while they're alive is just a result of us all being poisoned by capitalism. Which makes me think—just doing something you consider fun and putting in the effort to refine that skill is ultimately a good thing. That's my opinion at least."

It's an interesting stance to take in the wake of stories like Krafton announcing it was going all in on becoming an "AI-first company" across its library of games like PUBG and Inzoi, along with EA reportedly "urging its nearly 15,000 employees to use AI for just about everything." But it's especially interesting considering ZUN's own games—as Automaton Media also reported earlier this year—use generative AI, specifically Touhou Kinjoukyo: Fossilized Wonders, which used it for background textures.

It feels like a weirdly hypocritical take—while ZUN is referring mostly to music with his above comments, the result is the same, and his critiques can easily be applied to all kinds of art, from music to background textures. He claims his use of it was because he wanted to "reduce to nothing more than a tool," calling it "my way of asserting that I won't lose when it comes to creative work".

Themes around AI are folded into Fossilized Wonder's narrative and, as one Steam review puts it, "the game is very much NOT on the side of generative AI." But you can still very easily tell those stories and explore those themes without utilising the very thing you're criticising.

Saying that, I suppose it's at least something to see ZUM positing human creation as the superior option. Hopefully he can continue to apply those thoughts to his own works in the future.