The Director Who Warned Us About Artificial Intelligence Will Now Try To Embrace It

Just over a year ago, James Cameron was expressing his concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence. Now, he seems to be willing to embrace it, or at least take steps to shape the future of the advancing yet controversial technology. Deadline has just broken the news that Cameron, the director behind such tech-wary movies as the "Terminator" and "Avatar" franchises, is set to join the Stability AI Board of Directors.

Cameron joins a group of new board members that includes former Facebook head honcho Sean Parker, Greycroft venture capital firm Co-Founder and Managing Partner Dana Settle, and Colin Bryant, COO of the investment firm Coatue Management. The AI company's website states that it "[takes] an open-first and safety by design approach with all of our models so that developers all over the world can use our models as building blocks." Still, Cameron's appointment to the board will no doubt raise questions for fans of his work and industry insiders alike, as encroaching, copyright-questionable AI technology has already been deemed an issue by groups such as the Screen Actors Guild and, well, the U.S. government.

Those who wish to give Cameron the benefit of the doubt could assume he's joining this company's board to help encourage responsible AI use, but it's also worth wondering how his apparent embracing of the tech could impact his own movies. Will the next "Avatar" film feature artificially generated shots or elements? If so, will it be criticized the way nearly every other film and show that has incorporated AI has been in the past year?

The statement shared by Deadline from Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju isn't promising. In fact, it makes it sound like Cameron wants to make AI more normalized in the film industry. "James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up," Akkaraju said. "Stability AI's mission is to transform visual media for the next century by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life. We have an unmatched advantage to achieve this goal with a technological and creative visionary like James at the highest levels of our company."

This is all a stark contrast to Cameron's statements to CTV News in July of last year. "I absolutely share [concern about AI]," Cameron told the outlet, adding, "I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen." Cameron said that AI could be used for negative reasons, including proliferating misinformation or "teaching paranoia," but he seemed most concerned about its potential defense applications. "I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger," Cameron told CTV. "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."

Maybe Cameron feels like he's in some sort of "Oppenheimer" situation here, but this is a disappointing move regardless. I can't imagine how a major Hollywood director's alliance with the AI industry can ethically exist when there are already broad problems with the tech (not Stability's AI, but AI in general) now, including malicious deepfakes, lost jobs, and potential copyright infringement. Cameron has built a career out of being on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. He's also made more than one movie warning us about a tech dystopia, a fact that makes this new move all the more ironic. Frankly, it sounds like the director is overdue for a "T2: Judgment Day" rewatch.