I will try to avoid spoilers

It's quite interesting how many of the dangers of AI were predicted in these movies (which debuted in the late mid 80s to early 00s). In the first film, the Terminator changes their voice to sound like the protagonist's mother, convincing her to reveal the address of the hotel she was staying in. This is scarily similar to how deepfake voices in the modern era have been used to trick people into believing they are family. Then, in the sequel, it goes on step further where the more advanced Terminator is able to change its appearance to look like another person. Again, this is like how deepfake photos and videos have been used for malicious purposes. In the third movie, the Terminator is able to access and manipulate different computer systems.

You also see how the Terminator becomes more human-like as you go through the movies. The original is systematic and isn't very sneaky, speaking in a monotone voice. The second iteration we see has a more natural voice and can mimic the appearance of others, and the last iteration has the most human-sounding voice of the three. In one scene, we also see them attempting to seduce a police officer by enlarging their breasts, and although it cuts to the next scene, it is presumed that it worked and that the officer may be dead.

But I believe that the most chilling prediction of the Terminator movies is how SkyNet will destroy most of humanity once given control of the military equipment (and therefore the missiles).

The third movie emphasises the danger of integrating AI into everything, particularly military equipment, and we see, in multiple instances, how pressure from big execs that go against rational judgement can lead to a disastrous chain of events.

But what are we (or, more accurately, megacorps, the government, business execs, and others with significant power) doing with AI? Putting it in everything, all the services we rely on, in all sorts of gadgets (computers, smartphones, smart home bits, glasses...), and most notably, in the military of various different countries, many of whom nuclear-armed!

Should also look into Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

TIL 1984 (how apropos, now that I think of it) is considered "late '80s."

ETA: Just teasing, btw. Nice write-up!

Agreed. An absolute classic.

What offends me the most is the 2003 Snoozefest overoptimistically titled "Terminator 3" being included as an entry to the classic films Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Someone ought to create the Total Perspective Vortex and plug every single billionaire into it.

For anyone wondering, the first Terminator movie is well worth the watch.

https://archive.org/details/colossus-the-forbin-project-1970

Everyone should see it

Wouldn't work. Billionaires aren't right in their head, much like Zaphod is.

Trilogy?

This is literally what Elon Musk did. He's calling two of his data centers "Colossus 1" and "Colossus 2"...after this movie.

Zaphod survived because

Conservatives are famously kind of stupid. They're bad at empathy and critical analysis.

Can you be more specific about what you mean by "the third movie"?

"won't happen to me, I'm the main character"

"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines", that's the third movie in the trilogy, no? Unless there was some spinoff or similar I'm not aware of

Oh whoops! I thought it was 1987, I misremembered!

The first three movies then! Did not know about the newer movies, they weren't there when I was searching for movies in the plane

Indeed it is

They retconned it out of existence with "Terminator: Dark Fate". Basically, Terminator: Dark Fate is meant to be considered as if there had never been another Terminator movie after Terminator 2.

To be fair, yeah, I think the first two films were better.

I, too, think that ice cream is better than having nails driven into my eyeballs.