'We will get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race': James Cameron voices AI fears

James Cameron is concerned about the "weaponsiation of AI", which he thinks will escalate "into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race".

SHARE

SHARE

James Cameron is worried about AI
James Cameron is worried about AI

James Cameron is concerned about the "weaponsiation of AI".

The 68-year-old filmmaker is "concerned" about developments in artificial intelligence and how countries will want to go head-to-head in seeing how far they can push the technology, with potentially incredibly dangerous consequences.

Referring to his classic film 'The Terminator' - in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played a cyborg assassin, he told CTV News: "I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen.

"I absolutely share the concern [about AI potentially going too far]. I think the weaponisation 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.

"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."

His comments come after Arnold recently praised the 'Titanic' filmmaker for predicting the future of artificial intelligence and how what was depicted in the 'Terminator' movies has now "become a reality".

Speaking during 'An Evening with Arnold Schwarzenegger' in Los Angeles, the 75-year-old action star said: “Today, everyone is frightened of it, of where this is gonna go.

"And in this movie, in 'Terminator', we talk about the machines becoming self-aware and they take over."

The former 'Governor of California' celebrated the "brilliance of writing" in the film, especially considering "at that time we [had] scratched the surface of AI, artificial intelligence. Think about that.”

He added: “Now over the course of decades, it has become a reality. So it's not any more fantasy or kind of futuristic. It is here today. And so this is the extraordinary writing of Jim Cameron."