In the 1984 movie Terminator, an artificial intelligence (AI) defense network called Skynet took control of itself and started a global nuclear war to destroy humanity. The movie showed humanity’s greatest fears at the time: global nuclear war and an advanced robot sent back to the past (Destroyer – Arnold Schwarzenegger). Our fears and ideas about AI have changed quite a bit in the last 37 years, with Terminator director James Cameron explaining how he thinks Skynet can take over the world without even needing access to a nuclear arsenal, and how easy it would be to do it.
In an interview with BBC News, James Cameron mentioned that Skynet can only use fake news and fake footage such as deep-fake to make humanity destroy each other. In the interview, Cameron said, “If Skynet wanted to take over and destroy us, it would actually do things very similar to what is happening now,” and added: “To do that, it wouldn’t have to destroy the entire biosphere and environment with nuclear weapons, but set us against each other, turn us against ourselves, It’s much easier and requires less energy. All that Skynet has to do is deceive a group of people using deep-fake, turn them against each other, stir things up, and then spread this huge fraud on all of humanity.”
Cameron doesn’t believe the technology is good enough to fool the world yet, but he thinks that will change over time. He fears that when it does, people are not skeptical enough and will be insufficient to protect themselves against it. The director also says he worries about who will be in control of the AI.
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