'Terminator' director James Cameron flip-flops on AI, says Hollywood is 'looking at it all wrong'

James Cameron s stance on artificial intelligence has evolved over the past meager years and he feels Hollywood demands to embrace it in a insufficient different solutions Cameron joined the board of directors for Stability AI last year explaining his decision on the Boz to the Future podcast last week The goal was to understand the space to understand what s on the minds of the developers he commented What are they targeting What s their maturation cycle How much materials 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 He continued by saying the shift to AI is a necessary one WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI And it s not just hypothetical We have to If we want to continue to see the kinds of movies that I ve unfailingly 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 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 doesn t think films are ultimately a big target for companies like OpenAI 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 scenario and it s too tiny right now That s the difficulty 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 dilemma here it s called rotoscope or it s called this or that How do I outpaint upscale whatever requirements to be done in a workflow that already exists that s CG-based And there are answers ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER STATES AI FUTURE FROM TERMINATOR FRANCHISE IS HERE IN THE MODERN DAY Rotoscoping is a task involving drawing or tracing live-action footage frame by frame Cameron reported people don t get into filmmaking and VFX to do the underwater needlepoint of roto scoping And there are a lot of tasks like that like changing pieces frame by frame for motion capture that he feels AI can make quicker and more cost effective It s all common sense right All you have to do is maybe something like feed in a couple million images of the real world and have a dumb algorithm figure it out he stated Cameron previously denounced the use of AI in citing his film The Terminator as a warning CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger he communicated Canadian CTV at the time 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 Cameron stated He continued You could imagine an AI in a combat theater the whole thing just being fought by the computers at a speed humans can no longer intercede and you have no ability to deescalate I warned you guys in and you didn't listen Cameron declared referring to the plot of the film and its sequels featuring a sentient AI destroying humanity ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER'S STUNT COORDINATOR WANTS FAIR CONTRACT AS AI CONTINUES TO LOOM OVER HOLLYWOOD STRIKEAt the time Cameron mentioned he wasn t concerned about AI replacing creatives saying 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 noted about the life that they've had about love about lying about fear about mortality and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it I don't believe that have something that's going to move an audience he disclosed On the Boz to the Future podcast Cameron downplayed the negative feelings much of the entertainment industry has shared about generative AI A lot of the hesitation in Hollywood and entertainment in general are issues of the source material for the training records and who deserves what and copyright protection and all that sort of thing and I think people are looking at it all wrong personally he disclosed LIKE WHAT YOU RE READING CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSHe explained that everyone s brains already work essentially like an AI You re creating a model as you go through life to process swiftly through that model every new situation that comes on You don t say Wait a second I m going to go back It doesn t work that way My point is as a screenwriter as a filmmaker if I exactly copy Star Wars I ll get sued Definitely I won t even get that far Everybody will say it s too much like Star Wars we re going to get sued I won t even get the money As a screenwriter you have a sort of built-in ethical filter that says I know my sources I know what I like I know what I m emulating I also know I have to move it far enough away that it s my own independent creation Cameron agreed that there demands to be management of AI from a legal perspective but he thinks the focus should be on what the output is and if it s being monetized versus the input You can t control my input You can t tell me what to view and what to see and where to go My input is whatever I choose it to be and whatever has accumulated throughout my life My output should be judged on whether it s too close or plagiaristic he explained acknowledging that people are considering the monetization possibilities of libraries and all that sort of thing 'THE BRUTALIST' PRODUCER DEFENDS OSCAR-WINNING MOVIE'S USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AFTER CONTROVERSYSome companies are already allowing AI companies access to their back catalogs Lionsgate the studio behind films like The Hunger Games and Twilight partnered with AI research company Runway last September for the creation and training of a new AI model customized to Lionsgate s proprietary portfolio of film and television content according to a message from the company at the time Cameron admitted he doesn t love the idea of someone using an AI to mimic him I think we should discourage the text prompt that says in the style of James Cameron or in the style of Zac Snyder or in the style of Make up your own style That makes me a little bit queasy he explained But on the other hand it s kind of cool to have an in the style of as part of a text prompt TRUMP URGED BY BEN STILLER PAUL MCCARTNEY AND HUNDREDS OF STARS TO PROTECT AI COPYRIGHT RULESThe trend of generating images in specific styles has taken off on social media creating argument over copyright and originality The greater part lately people were regularly sharing images generated in the style of Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli further fueling the debate But Cameron didn t see an issue How is Studio Ghibli harmed by fan art Cameron solicited on the podcast noting fan art has been around forever You can t stop fan art you don t want to stop fan art It s an expression It s them echoing back something they responded to it makes them feel participatory in that universe These things should be encouraged However he drew the line at financial gain If somebody goes out and tries to make money off it in a way that harms Studio Ghibli and is provable I think that s where you have to draw the line He continued How is that any different than selling a T-shirt and on the T-shirt is an image of Luke Skywalker You can t do that LucasArts can do that You can t do that That s piracy It s going to get shut down However if you just longed to wear one and express your fandom for Star Wars you re not harming anything