James Cameron doubts the merits of a film made with artificial intelligence.
The Oscar winner “Titanic” told it. CTV News that while he “absolutely shares their concern” about the rise of artificial intelligence, when it comes to the impact of new technology on Hollywood, Cameron is less concerned.
“It’s never a question of who wrote it, it’s a question of, is it a good story?” Cameron said. “Personally I don’t think that a disembodied mind is just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said – about the life they’ve had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality – and put it all together in one word salad and then regurgitate it I don’t think he has anything that will move an audience.
Filmmakers like Nicolas Winding Refn, Charlie Brooker, and Joe Russo have recently tackled working with AI in the screenwriting process. Cameron noted that he “certainly wouldn’t be interested” in AI writing his screenplays, but that only time will tell what AI’s true impact is on Hollywood.
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“Let’s wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for best screenplay, I think we have to take it seriously,” Cameron said.
As for the real-world dangers of war-level AI, Cameron pointed to his original film ‘The Terminator’ which he wrote in 1984.
“I warned you guys in 1984 and you didn’t listen to me,” Cameron said. “I think AI weaponry is the biggest danger. I think we’re going to get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don’t build it, the other guys are definitely going to build it, and then it will escalate.
Cameron added, “You could imagine an AI in a theater of combat, the whole thing is being fought by computers at a rate that humans can’t intercede anymore, and you don’t have the ability to de-escalate.”
Similarly, “Oppenheimer” writer-director Christopher Nolan questioned the collective impulse to ascribe “godlike characteristics” to AI in a recent Wired cover storycalling the real danger “the abdication of responsibility”.
“I feel that AI can still be a very powerful tool for us. I’m optimistic about it. I really am. But we have to see it as a tool,” Nolan said. “The person who wields it still has to hold the responsibility of wielding that tool. , then yes, we will have huge problems”.
