'Terminator' Director James Cameron on AI: 'I Warned You Guys...and You Didn't Listen'

Nearly 40 years after directing "Terminator," Oscar-winning director James Cameron reflected on artificial intelligence in the midst of the SAG-AFTRA strike that is also related to AI taking over.

The 68-year-old director and deep-sea explorer recently sat down in an interview and commented on the concerns about using AI to replace actual actors as extras. "I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen," he said. This is in reference to his 1984 action classic, "The Terminator" where an AI-powered cyborg assassin comes to the past to hunt down one specific human.

Cameron, who also recently talked about OceanGate's lost Titanic submarine, stated that he "absolutely share(s) the concern" about AI potentially going too far, adding that he thinks the weaponization of AI is the "biggest danger."

According to People Magazine, the "Titanic" and "Avatar" director said, "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."

He added, "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 de-escalate."

James Cameron Says He Does Not Think AI Will Replace Writers Anytime Soon

The "Aliens" director also touched on the use of AI in the entertainment industry, saying, "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."

According to Deadline, Cameron is not taking the threat of AI replacing writers and directors such as himself seriously for now, adding, "Let's wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for Best Screenplay, I think we've got to take them seriously."

AI has become a very contentious subject between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which is also facing the writers' strike from the Writers Guild of America. The studios are reportedly proposing that background actors be scanned and only be paid for one day's work while the studio can use the actor's likeness forever, including other films.

The SAG-AFTRA Strike and AI

AI has become a major talking point in the entertainment industry, with "The Nanny" actress and president of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, saying, "If we don't stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business."

Both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are striking partly because of their concerns over being replaced by AI, which many believe is an "existential threat" to their livelihoods due to the rise of computer-generative technologies, according to MSNBC.

Advancements in AI technology can now let studios replicate actors digitally and make digital clones of them. This can be seen when Disney "resurrected" the late Peter Cushing to reprise his role as Grand Moff Tarkin in the Star Wars spin-off, "Rogue One."

Now, Hollywood studios want to replace extras with AI, threatening the livelihoods of many of the unknown actors who have not yet made a name for themselves yet.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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