# Werner Herzog has no patience for AI mimics

> The director behind Fitzcarraldo says AI should replace the copycats, because copying was never filmmaking.
- Title: Werner Herzog has no patience for AI mimics · Futurism
- Summary: The director behind Fitzcarraldo says AI should replace the copycats, because copying was never filmmaking. AI does not expose a shortage of tools for…
- Keywords: film, werner herzog, creativity, deepfakes, science, technology, Werner, Herzog, patience, mimics, Futurism
- Source: Futurism — https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/werner-herzog-demolishes-talentless-hacks-who-use-ai-to-imitate-other-filmmakers
- Author: Frank Landymore
- Published: 2026-09-12T12:01:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: ai, film, werner herzog, creativity, deepfakes, science, technology
## A film made in his voice
A 2025 movie called About a Hero used an AI script trained on Herzog's films, then added an AI deepfake of Herzog himself as the narrator.
## He said no, loudly
The 84-year-old director told the young filmmaker the idea was doomed before a frame was shot, and refused to have anything to do with it.

> It's phenomenally, abysmally stupid. I will not take part in it.
## AI can have the hacks
Herzog's argument is that AI only slots in where the work was already formulaic. Where there is no real storytelling, there is nothing for a machine to displace.

> I welcome AI to replace all the idiots who are into nothing but repeating, repeating, repeating.
## The tool exposes the user
A technology that can make anything tends to reveal how little the person driving it actually wanted to say. Most AI art just automates the unoriginal.
## Films with no soul
Speaking to Conan O'Brien, Herzog described short films built entirely by AI, story and acting included. They were technically complete and completely dead.

> They are stories, but they have no soul.
## Stuck at the average
His verdict: AI can only return the internet's lowest common denominator. He also claims no computer will match his work for 4,500 years.

> The common denominator and nothing beyond this common denominator can be found in these fabrications.
## Key takeaway

AI does not expose a shortage of tools for artists, it exposes a shortage of anything original to say.