Canadian filmmaker James Cameron was catapulted to fame after directing and writing 1984's The Terminator, a science fiction horror movie in which a cyborg is sent back in time by an AI defense network, Skynet, in order to eliminate the only threat it faces.
In this case that means assassinating the mother of John Connor, the man who will one day lead the human resistance. The Terminator is one of the all-time great blockbusters, and much of that is down to how it evokes the terror of being pursued by a machine with a machine's purpose. «It can't be bargained with,» Kyle Reese explains to Sarah Connor after the first encounter. «It can't be reasoned with.
It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear.» The Terminator is a manifestation of Skynet itself, an AI designed to ensure humankind's security, which long ago concluded that humankind itself was the problem.
Cameron would expand on the backstory of Skynet in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and, thanks to the peerless quality and commercial success of both films, it would be no exaggeration to say that in the popular imagination Skynet has become a byword for rogue AI.
Almost like Cameron was trying to warn us about something. Fast-forward 40 years, and James Cameron has joined the directors of AI firm Stability.