Terminator creator James Cameron joins board of AI company

Filmmaker James Cameron has joined the board of directors of artificial intelligence (AI) firm StabilityAI, 40 years after making a film about its risks.

In 1984’s The Terminator, which Cameron wrote and directed, a rogue AI called Skynet threatens the existence of mankind.

But the creator of the fictional AI has not been hired to help avoid such tech being developed in real life.

Instead, his role will centre around how the technology can be used in special effects, also known as computer-generated images (CGI).

“I’ve spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what’s possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories,” he said.

“I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I’ve stayed on the cutting edge since.

“Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave.”

Amongst his long list of hit movies, Cameron is known for creating special effects-heavy Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time.

His new place of work, StabilityAI, is best known for making Stable Diffusion – which can generate images based on a user’s text prompt.

It is also branching out into video, with Stable Video Diffusion, which works in the same way.

It is this tech that Cameron seems to have been brought on to help develop.

Proponents of AI video generation say it will enable artists to quickly create complicated digital effects.

But for many creatives – and Cameron’s contemporaries – this use of the technology is considered controversial at best.

Last week, Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro criticised AI-generated video during a talk at the British Film Institute in London, external, saying it could not generate much beyond “semi-compelling screensavers”.

Michael Bay said last year, external the tech “will create a whole bunch of lazy people” because “it doesn’t create, it just imitates”.

And Hiyao Miyazaki, who wrote and directed animated classic Spirited Away, previously said he was “disgusted” by an AI-generated video and called it “an insult to life itself”.