'Terminator' Director James Cameron Changes His Mind on AI

Hollywood director James Cameron has previously spoken out about the dangers of artificial intelligence, claiming that he "warned" everyone with his "Terminator" film back in 1984. But now, it seems he's changed his mind.

During an interview back in 2023, Cameron spoke candidly about what he saw as the "dangers" of AI.

"I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen!" the 68-year-old director said in a 2023 interview with CTV News. "I mean sure, look, you gotta follow the money, who's building these things, right? They're either building it to dominate market shares—so what are you teaching it, greed? Or you're building it for defensive purposes, so you're teaching it paranoia."

"I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger, Cameron continued. "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."

"And when you're dealing with the potential of it escalating to nuclear warfare, deescalation is the name of the game," he said, adding ominously: "And having that pause, that time out, will they do that? The AI will not."

Now, however, he is singing a different tune.

During a recent appearance on the "Boz to the Future" podcast, Cameron revealed that he has since changed his mind on AI and now has a much more positive view.

"The goal was to understand the space, to understand what’s on the minds of the developers," he said via Fox News. "What are they targeting? What’s their development cycle? How much resources you have to throw at it to create a new model that does a purpose-built thing, and my goal was to try to integrate it into a VFX workflow." 

Cameron actually thinks it's necessary for Hollywood to embrace AI.

"And it’s not just hypothetical. We have to. If we want to continue to see the kinds of movies that I’ve always loved and that I like to make and that I will go to see – ‘Dune,’ ‘Dune: Part Two’ or one of my films or big effects-heavy, CG-heavy films – we’ve got to figure out how to cut the cost of that in half," he said.

"Now that’s not about laying off half the staff at a VFX company. That’s about doubling their speed to completion on a given shot, so your cadence is faster and your throughput cycle is faster, and artists get to move on and do other cool things and then other cool things, right? That’s my sort of vision for that."

Cameron thinks that most of Hollywood looks at AI incorrectly. He does not think that AI will ever replace Hollywood with AI-generated movies, he simply sees it as a tool that Hollywood needs to embrace.

"Their goal is not to make GenAI movies. We’re a little wart on their butt," he laughed.

"Movies are just a tiny application, tiny use case, and it’s too tiny right now. That’s the problem. It’s going to be smaller, boutique-type GenAI developer groups that I can get the attention of and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a problem here, it’s called rotoscope,’ or it’s called this or that. How do I outpaint, upscale, whatever needs to be done in a workflow that already exists that’s CG-based? And there are answers."

source https://www.mensjournal.com/entertainment/terminator-director-james-cameron-changes-his-mind-on-ai