James Cameron says the reality of artificial general intelligence is 'scarier' than the fiction of it
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," which was released in 1984, an artificial intelligence network developed by the US Defense Department gains self-awareness and ultimately turns on the human race in a nuclear attack.
In a virtual message about the future of AI for the Special Competitive Studies Project's AI+Robotics Summit, Cameron says that contrary to his movies, AGI will not come from "a government-funded program."
"Then you'll be living in a world that you didn't agree to, didn't vote for, that you are co-inhabiting with a super-intelligent alien species that answers to the goals and rules of a corporation," Cameron said. "An entity which has access to the comms, beliefs, everything you ever said, and the whereabouts of every person in the country via your personal data."
Cameron said surveillance capitalism, where corporations collect consumer data and sell it for profit, can "toggle pretty quickly" into digital totalitarianism.
