James Cameron says he first warned the world about the dangers of its rise Artificial Intelligence (AI) the 1984but the film industry “didn’t listen to him”.

In an interview with CTV News, the director referred to his classic sci-fi film Terminator when asked what he thinks about the rise of AI in the entertainment industry. “I warned you in 1984 and you didn’t listen,” Cameron said.

In addition to the entertainment industry, Cameron also believes that AI poses a threat to military operations: “I think we’re going to get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don’t develop it, others certainly will, and so then it will escalate.

You could imagine an AI on a battlefield, waging war by computers at a speed that humans can no longer intervene, and you have no ability to de-escalate it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, James Cameron said he doesn’t think the technology behind AI will be able to replace screenwriters, saying: “It’s never a question of who wrote it, it’s a question of whether it’s a good story.”

“I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind reproduces what other embodied minds have said – about the life they had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality – just puts it all together in a word salad and then spits it out… I don’t think it has anything that will move the audience,” said the Canadian director, producer and screenwriter.

Cameron also said that he “definitely wouldn’t be interested” in having AI write his movie scripts, but only time will tell how AI will affect the industry. “Let’s wait 20 years and if an Artificial Intelligence wins Oscar for Best ScreenplayI think we have to take it seriously,” he stressed.