A Game of Thrones fan used AI to write all of The Winds of Winter (and A Dream of Spring)

James Cameron isn’t afraid of AI writers, but is afraid of AI soldiers

James Cameron has often been on the cutting edge of film technology; his Avatar movies are pushing the limits of what special effects can do. That said, he doesn’t see human screenwriters are in much danger from AI, at least not for a while.

“I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said — 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’s ever going to have something that’s going to move an audience,” Cameron told CTV News. “You have to be human to write that. I don’t know anyone that’s even thinking about having AI write a screenplay.”

"Let’s wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for best screenplay, I think we’ve got to take them seriously."

That said, Cameron is worrying about AI, but he’s more concerned about it eradicating the human race like the robots from his own film Terminator. “You got to follow the money,” he said. “Who’s building these things? They’re either building it to dominate marketing shares, so you’re teaching it greed, or you’re building it for defensive purposes, so you’re teaching it paranoia. I think the weaponization 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 are for sure going to build it, and so then it’ll escalate…You could imagine an 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 deescalate."

“I warned you guys in 1984!” Cameron added. “And you didn’t listen.”

AI death squads may be some ways off. In the meantime, human screenwriters and actors are currently on strike in part because of the threat AI poses to their jobs. One robot menace at a time.

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