In 1984, James Cameron gave us The Terminator, a very entertaining sci-fi action movie that warns of AI threats, but we didn’t take it seriously enough.
Speaking to CTV News, James Cameron commented on the potential threat AI poses to humanity. “I warned you guys in 1984 and you didn’t listen,” Cameron said. “I think weaponization of AI is the biggest danger. I think we’re going to get into the AI equivalent of a nuclear arms race, and if we don’t create it, other guys will surely create it, and then things will escalate.”
Cameron continued: “You could imagine artificial intelligence in a theater of war where computers are just fighting at a speed where humans can no longer intervene and you have no way to de-escalate the situation.”
The Terminator director also commented on the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, in which the studio’s use of artificial intelligence is playing a major role. James Cameron doesn’t think artificial intelligence is at the level where it will replace talented writers anytime soon. “The question is never who wrote it, the question is is it a good story?” Cameron said. “I just personally don’t believe that a disembodied mind that just spews out what other embodied minds have said – about the life they’ve had, about love, about lies, about fear, about mortality – and just puts it all together in a verbal lettuce and then regurgitate it… I don’t believe there’s anything in it that can move an audience.”
James Cameron isn’t the only person to comment on the future of artificial intelligence predicted in The Terminator, as Arnold Schwarzenegger shared the same thoughts a few weeks ago. “Today, everyone is afraid of this, of what it will lead to,” the actor said at the “An Evening with Arnold Schwarzenegger” event in Los Angeles. “And in this movie, in The Terminator, we talk about machines becoming self-aware and they’re taking over… Now, after decades, it’s become a reality. So it’s no longer fantasy or something futuristic. It is here and today. So, this is an extraordinary work by James Cameron.”
