James Cameron joins board of AI company – and faces backlash

Hollywood's relationship with artificial intelligence is far from a blissful one...  

It was one of the major reasons behind the writers and actors going on strike last year, as they were fearful for the protection of their images and craft from unregulated AI. Then there are the countless lawsuit threats over fears that some AI companies have trained their models on content – all without permission – and the question of copyright when a technology works by analysing human-made pictures. 

With the strikes still ringing in creatives’ ears comes an announcement that has not gotten unanimous approval.  

James Cameron, the director behind The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and the Avatarsaga, has joined the board of directors of AI firm StabilityAI – a London-based maker of artificial intelligence image-generation tool Stable Diffusion that rivals those made by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, for example. His role will apparently centre around how the technology can be used in special effects in films. 

In a statement, the company’s CEO Prem Akkaraju said: “James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up.” 

“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,” added Akkaraju. “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 not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall.”

Cameron said: “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." 

“I was at the forefront of CGI over three