As AI technology advances and major developers churn out more powerful models year by year, many prolific creators in the game industry, such as Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu and Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto, have been vocal about valuing human creativity amidst this new trend. Recently, Touhou Project creator ZUN shared his own outlook on the technology, stating that while the technical aspects of music (or any creative work) can be easily generated by AI – that is not what music is all about. As ZUN explains, the only way to beat AI is by honing the human creative spirit.
Celebrating the “5.5th anniversary” of Touhou LostWord, an officially licensed Touhou fangame developed by NextNinja and published by Smile Company, ZUN participated as a guest in a live broadcast on the game’s official YouTube channel. As a way to wrap up the stream (around the 2:12:18 mark), ZUN commented that, for him, the music was the highlight of the broadcast, emphasizing the importance of the “human aspect” of music, especially now, when AI tools are more accessible than ever. “From a technical aspect, AI can easily make music. But that’s not the point of music, you know. What actually matters is that there are living human beings behind it all,” ZUN said.
“Humans who create things can beat technology just by creating things. However, humans probably can’t beat business. But we don’t really need business (laughs). 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,” he added.
Despite facing some criticism regarding using AI-generated images in his own game, ZUN has previously stated that his goals for using the technology was to “reduce it to nothing but a tool.” As he explained, “AI is just a convenient tool, and using it like this was my way of asserting that I won’t lose when it comes to creative work.”
