Filmmaker James Cameron says he warned the world of the rise of artificial intelligence and its dangers decades ago with his hit 1984 film The Terminator.
In a new interview with CTV Newsthe legendary director shared his thoughts on the growing fears of AI and its increasing role in Hollywood amid the ongoing strike and demands from the Writers Guild of America Work Protection against AI technologyj.
Cameron made it clear that he’s more worried about AI causing a nuclear catastrophe than about being able to write “a good story,” which he says he needs humans to do.
“I think using AI as a weapon is the biggest threat,” Cameron said. “I think that with AI we’re going to get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race, and if we don’t build it, the others will certainly build it, and then it will escalate.”
CBS photo archive via Getty Images
“One could imagine an AI in a battlefield,” he added. “The whole thing is being fought only by the computers at a speed where humans can no longer intervene and there is no possibility of de-escalation.”
Referring to his classic film The Terminator, which is about a self-aware AI cyborg named Skynet who takes control of the world and launches an attack on humanity, Cameron declared, “I warned you guys in 1984!” And you didn’t listen.”
When asked about natural language processing tools driven by AI technology, he replied: like ChatGPTand her ability to produce compelling screenplays, Cameron argued that “you have to be human to write that.”
“Personally, I just don’t think a disembodied spirit would just take what other embodied spirits have said — about the life they’ve lived, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality — and just throw it all together into a jumble of words and then regurgitate it,” he said.
“I don’t think there will ever be anything that moves audiences,” he continued. “You have to be human to write that. I don’t know anyone who even thinks about having AI write a screenplay.”
Though Cameron claimed that he had “no interest” in AI writing his screenplays, he stated, “Let’s wait 20 years and if an AI wins an Oscar for best screenplay, I think we have to take it seriously.”
Cameron isn’t the only star who doesn’t seem concerned about the possibilities of AI storytelling.
Netflix’s Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker admitted last month that he used ChatGPT to help draft an episode for the series before the sixth season premiere, but it turned out to be “shit”.
Brooker said the AI chatbot merely went through the show’s episode summaries and “kind of mixed them up,” resulting in colossal disappointment.
