“I warned back in 1984”: the creator of the “Terminator” spoke about the dangers of artificial intelligence

Celebrity director James Cameron doubts that artificial intelligence can write a “good story” and argues that “weaponizing AI is the biggest danger” to society. “I warned you about this in 1984!” says the creator of the Terminator.

Three-time Oscar winner James Cameron has questioned the ability of artificial intelligence to write a “good story” or a movie script.

Reflecting on AI chatbots like ChatGPT that help people write emails, resumes and even fiction, the 68-year-old director, best known for writing and directing Titanic in 1997, said he “didn’t know anyone who even thought about asking AI to write a screenplay.”

“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 word salad and then spews it out … will something ever happen that touches an audience,” James Cameron told CTV News.

The director continued, “You have to be human to write that. Let’s wait 20 years and if artificial intelligence wins an Oscar for best screenplay, I think we should take it seriously.”

Stating that he is not concerned about artificial intelligence taking his place, Cameron expressed concern that it would lead to a nuclear holocaust.

“I think that weaponization of AI is the biggest danger,” the director said. “I think we will go into a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don’t create it, other guys will create it for sure, and then the situation will escalate.

Referring to his film The Terminator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cameron said: “I warned you guys in 1984… and you didn’t listen.”

The Terminator famously followed a human soldier sent from the year 2029 to “1984 to stop a nearly indestructible cyborg killing machine sent from the same year that was programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity’s future salvation.”

Speaking in a similar vein about artificial intelligence, Schwarzenegger, who played the cyborg, warned the public that the Terminator had “become a reality.”

“Today, everyone is afraid of this, of what it will lead to,” said the 75-year-old actor. “And in this film, in The Terminator, we talk about machines gaining self-awareness and taking over. Now, after decades, this has become a reality.”

“Now, after decades, it has become a reality. So it’s no longer a fantasy or something futuristic. It’s here and today. So, this is an extraordinary work of Jim Cameron,” Schwarzenegger added.

The former governor of California further called Cameron “such an extraordinary writer” and “an incredible filmmaker”.

“I can only give credit to the character I played and the way I played him. But I mean, he created that character. He wrote it so well, he wrote the film so well, and that’s why he’s, you know, the number one director in the world,” he concluded.

Earlier this month, SAG acting president Fran Drescher said actors fear being replaced by robots.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she stated that new technology is one of the key reasons for the strike in Hollywood because the “digital age is consuming” the film industry.

Drescher is likely referring to powerful technology that can “age” actors – recently, Indiana Jones and the Pendulum of Doom used software to make the lead actor, Harrison Ford, look 40 years younger. There were fears that the same technology could be used to completely replace human actors with artificial intelligence creatures, writes the Daily Mail.

Drescher’s comments come after her union, which represents some 160,000 Hollywood artists, including some of the world’s most famous stars, announced its historic back-to-back strike over wages and artificial intelligence.