What will be the future of Artificial Intelligence? Will it be like Terminator?
When director James Cameron made the movie ‘The Terminator‘ in 1984, the whole story of mankind being destroyed by a highly conscious AI named ‘Skynet‘ was purely dependent on science fiction. But currently, in 2026, AI is involved in every task of ours and now this question is no longer limited to the cinema screen. Sometimes I wonder, will AI really go against humans at some point? Or will it be our closest friend in times of danger?
Considering everything, today I will present a detailed article about the future of AI before you.
1. Among the three stages of AI, which stage are we in currently?
To understand the future of AI, we need to understand the three stages of its transformation.
- Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI): What we currently use for our work. We always use ChatGPT, Gemini, Face Recognition etc. to make our work easier. They can never think like humans.
- Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): This is called the ‘Holy Grail‘ of AI research. Here a machine will be capable of doing almost any complex task exactly like a human. A machine will work just the way a human performs a task using judgment, intelligence, and physical strength. According to researchers, we might reach here between 2030 to 2050.
- Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI): Those of us who worry about AI, this is that stage. At this stage, AI will be so powerful that they will even surpass human thinking. This is actually the stage about which the ‘Doomsday‘ scenarios of movies are created.
2. Is the Terminator from movies possible in reality?
In pop culture, AI is usually shown as dictatorial and destructive. But in real research, these are somewhat different.
A. Goal Alignment Problem Popular AI researcher Nick Bostrom, in his book ‘Superintelligence‘, showed that AI will become an enemy of humans not because they are ‘bad’, but because if their goals do not match our goals, there will be danger. I also think the same—that they won’t be bad, but their thoughts won’t align with ours, and that’s why they will become our big enemy. For example, suppose you gave a Super-intelligent AI the task of ‘preventing climate change‘. It might then think that carbon emissions happen through humans, which causes climate change. So, it might consider humans as the enemy and want to exterminate them. Just like Ultron in Marvel’s popular movie Avengers: Age of Ultron calculated right after being born that humanity is responsible for the miserable condition of the world; they are fatally flawed, self-destructive, and the biggest threat to world peace. But Tony Stark created Ultron to save the world, yet it considered humans as the world’s biggest enemy. Actually, these are not AI’s enmity but rather logical calculations.
B. Autonomous Weapons The real form of robot soldiers in movies is ‘Lethal Autonomous Weapons‘ or LAWs for short. If we look around, we will see that the use of AI in drones and defense systems is increasing tremendously in the current world. Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are repeatedly warning that mankind will face a big threat due to the AI-driven arms race. Giant company owner Elon Musk has pursued legal action against OpenAI, alleging that the company has drifted from its original non-profit mission toward a profit-driven model, potentially compromising global AI safety and transparency.
3. Positive aspects of future AI
In the future, AI will not just be the cause of destruction. In some aspects, it will take human civilization to a new height.
- Healthcare: AI can be 99% more accurate than humans in cancer detection. By 2040, perhaps personal AI doctors will check every person’s genome sequence and provide cures even before a disease occurs. Again, in some important operations, accurate surgery will perhaps be done through AI.
- Education: How someone will study, meaning what the merit of a child is, AI will create separate syllabuses through ‘Personalized Learning‘ accordingly.
- Reducing Labor or Liberation: A task that a human does in 10 hours, a machine can do in less than 1 hour. And if AI is involved in physical labor, then the work that would take a human all day, AI can verify and do it in a moment. If repetitive tasks are done by robots through AI, humans will be able to focus more on creative work. This is being called the ‘Post-Scarcity Economy‘.
4. The biggest challenge: AI and Employment
The biggest impact of future AI will fall on the labor market, which we can already see right now. For example, movie scripts are now being written with AI. To reduce the budget, VFX and actors’ work are being done with AI. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) report, within the next decade, 92 millions of people worldwide will lose their jobs and an equal number of new jobs will be created. However, during this transition period, the possibility of social inequality increasing is strong.
5. Can AI become conscious?
In movies like Terminator or the popular Matrix, the consciousness or ego of AI is shown. However, according to current neuroscience and computer science, computer and consciousness are not the same thing. AI might be able to work like humans but there is no biological reason for it to have human-like sadness, hatred or greed for power.
6. What are we doing for control and security?
Scientists are working with some special safeguards so that AI does not go against humans in the future.
- AI Alignment: So that the goals of AI are consistent with human moral values.
- Kill Switch: A hardware or software mechanism that can instantly turn off the AI.
- Regulation: The EU has already passed the ‘AI Act’ that bans the use of risky AI.
The future of AI from my point of view
It is actually very difficult to say what AI will be like in the future. One group says AI will become dangerous like in the movies, while another group says nothing like that will happen. However, 100 years ago, people could never imagine digital mobiles or the internet. People never thought they would go beyond Earth. But today, everything has become possible. In the last 50 years, the world has advanced a lot. So, it is very difficult to say that 100 years from now, AI will not act like in the movies using its own imagination. However, one thing is true: whether AI will be like Terminator or like Tony Stark’s assistant Friday depends entirely on us. Our future depends on how we are operating these today. By using human intelligence and the artificial intelligence of AI, this world can be made much more beautiful and advanced. Where there will be no disease, poverty, or ignorance. However, for these, there is a need for strict international laws and a framework of ethical research.
“AI will be the last great invention of mankind, unless we learn how to control it.” ….Stephen Hawking
I am sharing 10 of my favorite movies about AI with you. You can watch them if you want.
The Terminator, Matrix, Ex Machina, Her-2013, Blade Runner, A.I. Artificial Intelligence – 2001, WALL-E, Tron, I, Robot – 2004, Transcendence