Arnold Schwarzenegger Warns of AI Threat

The film star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger drew parallels between real artificial intelligence (AI) and Skynet from the Terminator film.

The potential threat posed by AI was a common trope of science fiction in late-20th-century Hollywood. But now Schwarzenegger sees a real problem posed by the technology.

“In ‘Terminator’, it was a brilliant script, because now—after all these decades—it has become reality. So this is no longer fantasy or something futuristic. It is happening today,” the actor said.

According to the film’s plot, the artificial intelligence created for the U.S. Department of Defense caused a nuclear catastrophe and the extinction of humanity.

Meanwhile, the American film industry is grappling with a strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). One of the causes of the dispute has been the use of generative AI to write content.

The WGA proposed not to regard generated content as ‘literary’ or ‘source material’.

The organization also called for a ban on the use of AI to rewrite works covered by the agreement.

In April 2022, British actors also opposed the use of artificial intelligence in the film industry.

In May 2023, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated that AI poses an “existential risk,” from which many people could “suffer or die”.

In June, UN representatives stated that AI-generated deepfakes threaten information integrity and fuel hatred in society.