Cameron says machines are a bigger threat now than in 1984 when he made the sci-fi thriller The Terminator.
Amidst much criticism over foreign workers taking jobs that otherwise would have come to native workers, Cameron asserts that the problem lies somewhere else. The much famed Hollywood director, who has directed films like The Terminator and Avatar, minces no words to state his take on the issue.
“Everyone’s always talking about ‘those damn foreigners taking our jobs,’” Cameron said, Yahoo Finance reported. “Guess what guys, it’s not foreigners, it’s robots.”
Cameron shared his thoughts during the opening ceremony of Pandora World of Avatar, a theme park developed at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The award-winning director is coming up with sequels to his box-office hit film, Avatar. “A lot of my imagery for the movie came from dreams I had as a teenager,” Cameron said.
He said that his dream has been brought to life through the park, with Disney’s endeavors. “The Imagineering team brought it to life,” Cameron said. “My animators [at Lightstorm Entertainment] worked very closely with the Imagineering team. But I didn’t try to guide it or micromanage it.”
A lot of influencers are skeptical over the impact of AI on the country’s job market. Cameron termed it “a significant threat.” However, some industry experts do not view artificial intelligence as detrimental to the human workforce. Though, a majority asserts that it would cause major dislocations.
Earlier this month, Google’s Eric Schmidt shared his views on IA. Schmidt opined that while AI would take a few jobs, it would open avenues to create many more in other areas. “This time is not different that while there is a tremendous dislocations in jobs, I am not denying that, in aggregate, there will be more jobs,” he said at the MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). Schmidt stressed on the need to train more engineers in AI to meet the industry’s future demand. On H-1B, Schmidt, too, is critical of the proposed changes by the Trump administration.