James Cameron plays down film industry's AI fears

James Cameron does not fear artificial intelligence conquering Hollywood.

The use of AI to replicate actors on screen is one of the main causes of the current SAG-AFTRA strike that has brought the film industry to a halt but the 'Titanic' director believes that the technology will never be able to replicate a script written with human emotion.

James told CTV News: "It's never an issue of who wrote it, it's a question of, is it a good story?

"I just don't personally believe that a disembodied mind that's just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said - about the life they've had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality - and just put it all together into a word salad and the regurgitate it. I don't believe that has something that's going to move an audience."

The filmmaker added: "Let's wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for Best Screenplay, I think we've got to take them seriously."

AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in day-to-day life and Cameron pointed out at that his classic 1984 movie 'The Terminator' showcased the dangerous side of the technology.

The 68-year-old director said: "I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen.

"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 for sure are going to build it, and so then it'll escalate.

"You could imagine 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 de-escalate."