{"id":53354,"date":"2025-10-28T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53354"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:27:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:27:42","slug":"touhou-project-creator-zun-says-ai-can-never-beat-human-creativity-were-all-just-too-poisoned-by-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/touhou-project-creator-zun-says-ai-can-never-beat-human-creativity-were-all-just-too-poisoned-by-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Touhou Project creator ZUN says AI can never beat human creativity. \u201cWe\u2019re all just too poisoned by capitalism.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As AI technology advances and major developers churn out more powerful models year by year, many prolific creators in the game industry, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-composer-nobuo-uematsu-says-hes-never-used-generative-ai-and-never-will-hardship-is-what-makes-the-creative-process-rewarding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ai-could-never-come-up-with-a-sequel-like-silent-hill-f-series-producer-joins-discussion-on-ai-generated-remakes-and-sequels\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto<\/a>, have been vocal about valuing human creativity amidst this new trend. Recently, <strong>Touhou Projec<\/strong>t 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 \u2013 that is not what music is all about. As ZUN explains, the only way to beat AI is by honing the human creative spirit. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u7b2c59\u56de\uff1a\u6771\u65b9LostWord\uff08\u30ed\u30b9\u30c8\u30ef\u30fc\u30c9\uff09 \u516c\u5f0f\u751f\u653e\u9001\u3000\u30b2\u30b9\u30c8\uff1aZUN\u3055\u3093\/\u662f\u7a7a\u3068\u304a\u308b\u3055\u3093\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZW2bX1PXi5I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Celebrating the \u201c5.5th anniversary\u201d of <strong>Touhou LostWord<\/strong>, 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\u2019s 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 \u201chuman aspect\u201d of music, especially now, when AI tools are more accessible than ever. \u201cFrom a technical aspect, AI can easily make music. But that\u2019s not the point of music, you know. What actually matters is that there are living human beings behind it all,\u201d ZUN said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHumans who create things can beat technology just by creating things. However, humans probably can\u2019t beat business. But we don\u2019t really need business (laughs). This idea that people need to do business while they\u2019re alive is just a result of us all being poisoned by capitalism. Which makes me think \u2013 just doing something you consider fun and putting in the effort to refine that skill is ultimately a good thing. That\u2019s my opinion, at least,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"864\" height=\"486\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-533540001.jpg\" alt=\"Touhou LostWord Reimu Hakurei gameplay. \" class=\"wp-image-53357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-533540001.jpg 864w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-533540001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-533540001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite facing some criticism regarding <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/touhou-projects-20th-mainline-entry-uses-ai-art-in-demo-causing-mixed-reactions\/\">using AI-generated images in his own game<\/a>, ZUN <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/touhou-project-creator-explains-why-he-used-ai-in-new-title-affirms-negative-stance-towards-generative-ai\/\">has previously stated<\/a> that his goals for using the technology was to \u201creduce it to nothing but a tool.\u201d As he explained, \u201cAI is just a convenient tool, and using it like this was my way of asserting that I won\u2019t lose when it comes to creative work.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent live broadcast on YouTube, Touhou Project creator ZUN shared his opinion on AI-generated music and the human creative spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":53356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,17],"class_list":["post-53354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ai","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Touhou Project creator ZUN says AI can never beat human creativity. \u201cWe\u2019re all just too poisoned by capitalism.\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent live broadcast on YouTube, Touhou Project creator ZUN shared his opinion on AI-generated music and the human creative spirit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/touhou-project-creator-zun-says-ai-can-never-beat-human-creativity-were-all-just-too-poisoned-by-capitalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Touhou Project creator ZUN says AI can never beat human creativity. \u201cWe\u2019re all just too poisoned by capitalism.\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent live broadcast on YouTube, Touhou Project creator ZUN shared his opinion on AI-generated music and the human creative spirit.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/touhou-project-creator-zun-says-ai-can-never-beat-human-creativity-were-all-just-too-poisoned-by-capitalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-27T15:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251027-53354-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"987\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"554\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Touhou Project creator ZUN says AI can never beat human creativity. \u201cWe\u2019re all just too poisoned by capitalism.\u201d - 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