- James Cameron shared a virtual message at an AI and robotics summit.
- He said he is “bullish” on AI, but “not so excited” about AGI.
- He said he worries the technology will end up in the hands of private companies.
James Cameron, the writer and director of “The Terminator,” is wary of artificial general intelligence, the still theoretical version of AI that can reason as well as humans.
In “The Terminator,” released in 1984, an artificial intelligence network developed by the U.S. Department of Defense gains self-awareness and ultimately turns on humanity in a nuclear attack.
It’s about as dystopian as you can imagine. Cameron said the reality may be worse.
In a virtual message on the future of AI for the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI+Robotics Summit, Cameron says that, unlike his films, AGI does not emerge from “a government-funded program.”
“It will come from one of the tech giants currently funding this multibillion-dollar research,” he said.
“Then you live in a world that you don’t agree with, that you didn’t vote for, that you live with a super-intelligent alien species that conforms to the goals and rules of a corporation,” says Cameron. said. “An entity that, through your personal information, has access to the communications, beliefs, everything you’ve ever said, and the whereabouts of every person in the country.”
Cameron said surveillance capitalism, where companies collect consumer data and sell it for profit, could turn into digital totalitarianism “quite quickly.”
“At best, these tech giants become the self-appointed arbiters of human well-being, namely the fox guarding the hen house,” he said.
Arnold Schwarzenegger poses with a gun in the 1984 film ‘The Terminator’. Universal History Archive / Getty Images
“That’s a scarier scenario than what I presented 40 years ago in ‘The Terminator’, if only because it’s not science fiction anymore. It’s happening.”
Cameron said that while he is “optimistic about AI,” he is “not so excited about AGI because AGI will just be a mirror of us.”
“Good insofar as we are good, and bad insofar as we are bad,” he said. “Since there is no shortage of evil in the human world, and certainly no agreement on even what is good, what could possibly go wrong?”
Although Cameron rose to fame as a Hollywood director, he is also known for his tech ventures. He co-founded the visual effects studio Digital Domain in 1993. Cameron has continued to integrate cutting-edge technology into his films, including the “Avatar” franchise.
James Cameron attended the world premiere of “Avatar: The Way of Water” in December 2022. Joe Maher/Getty Images
Cameron has shared his thoughts on the potential impact of artificial intelligence on society and filmmaking several times. During an appearance in the Netflix series ‘What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates’ Cameron told the Microsoft co-founder that it is becoming increasingly difficult to write science fiction as AI advances.
“It’s going to be hard to write science fiction. Every idea I have today is at least three years away from the screen. How can I be relevant in three years when things are changing so quickly?” he said to Gates.
Cameron also told Gates that he is concerned that people are placing more trust in machines and less in their sense of purpose.
“I think we’re going to get to a point where we’re going to put our trust more and more in the machines without humans involved, and that could be problematic,” he said. “If we take people out of the loop, what are we replacing their sense of purpose and meaning with?”
However, Cameron has continued to entrench himself in the AI and technology industries.
Stability AI, a generative AI company, announced that Cameron joined its board of directors in September.
“James Cameron is living in the future and waiting for the rest of us to catch up,” the company’s CEO said in a press release.
