Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron has spoken out on the ongoing AI issue, explaining that he warned the world of this development with 1984’s The Terminator.
Speaking to CTV News, James Cameron pointed out that he warned humanity decades ago about the issues of artificial intelligence. The iconic filmmaker explained that the expansion of AI development is already reaching a boiling point.
“I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn’t listen,” Cameron explained. “I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger. I think that we will get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don’t build it, the other guys are for sure going to build it, and so then it’ll escalate.”
Cameron’s worries about AI in the military has already become a modern reality. The United States military has already introduced robotics that require common sense training into its troops as well as predictive event, aka Minority Report, AI to detect war events before they happen.
Cameron explained that he can imagine a future where warfare is entirely dictated by AI, just like the Star Trek episode ‘A Taste of Armageddon’.
“You could imagine an AI in a combat theatre, the whole thing just being fought by the computers at a speed humans can no longer intercede, and you have no ability to deescalate,” the film director explained.
Cameron’s work on The Terminator played on a number of Orwellian ideas on the future of computing. While the series has become bogged down with its sequels, the idea of Skynet has become a modern worry once again.
James Cameron also commented on the ongoing worries of AI taking the jobs of creatives such as artists and writers. As SAG-AFTRA and the WGA strike against the rise of AI in the movie industry, Cameron explained that AI could never replace good writers.
“It’s never an issue of who wrote it, it’s a question of, is it a good story?” the filmmaker said. “I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said — about the life that they’ve had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality — and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it … I don’t believe that have something that’s going to move an audience.“
Cameron has expressed a desire to return to The Terminator franchise and update it for the modern age. While the film’s narrative and themes still speak true today, the advancement of contemporary AI could make for a great follow-up.
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