Arnold Schwarzenegger Says He's More Concerned With 'Basic Stupidity' Than AI Future of Tech

Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke out about the future of technology during an interview on "Front Office Sports with Matt Iseman."

The Terminator star was asked if he would be invested in AI for years to come after his passing. “I’ve welcomed the whole new technology, though people always tell me they’re really concerned about AI,” he said.

He continued, “They would ask me, ‘Artificial Intelligence, are you worried about it? I would say, No, I’m more worried about basic stupidity rather than artificial intelligence. This is the thing that I’m more worried about. I think there’s some good stuff that comes out of there, like with everything.”

During the 1980s, Schwarzenegger became one of pop culture’s most recognizable faces associated with artificial intelligence through The Terminator, in which he played the T-800, a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Terminator.

He has since said he is fascinated by how AI has evolved over the years, while also acknowledging the potential downsides that come with the technology.

“Everything that we do has a side where you have to be cautious. I’m not worried that someone else is going to copy me and it’s going to create an image of me and then use it,” he said. “Everything that I’ve seen so far was always complimentary. I think that it is amazing. I see so much of the technology kind of unfolding in front of my eyes because I’m 79 years old and I’ve seen a lot of changes, especially when I went from Austria to America. But what I’ve seen in the last 20 years is just ridiculous.”

Schwarnegger added, “To see those cars driving around by themselves without a driver, and people are feeling totally comfortable. They used to say, ‘I’m never going to get in a car like that. What if it crashes into something?’ Now, they’re just jumping in, and they tell me when they come to the gym.”

The actor has embraced AI for years — so much so, he launched the comedic spoof, Arnold Intelligence (A.I.), a promotional vocal approximation in which the A.I. sounds like him and shares advice from his book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

The A.I. experience was set up at Gold’s Gym in Venice, Calif. However, visitors later realized they were not actually speaking to the real Arnold but to a machine.

It seems that Schwarzenegger may have predicted the future with his famous line from The Terminator, “I’ll Be Back.”

During a 2023 speaking event titled “An Evening With Arnold Schwarzenegger,” he stated that the A.I. from The Terminator has made its way into today’s modern world.

“Today, everyone is frightened of it, of where this is gonna go,” he said, per the New York Post. “And in this movie, in Terminator, we talk about machines becoming self-aware, and they take over.”

He continued, “Now over the course of decades, it has become a reality. So it’s not any more fantasy or kind of futuristic. It is here today. And so this is the extraordinary writing of Jim Cameron.”