President Biden was profoundly curious about [artificial intelligence] in the months of meetings that led up to drafting the executive order. His science advisory council focused on AI at two meetings and his Cabinet discussed it at two meetings. The president also pressed tech executives and civil society advocates about the technology’s capabilities at multiple gatherings. … The issue of AI was seemingly inescapable for Biden. At Camp David one weekend, he relaxed by watching the Tom Cruise film “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.” The film’s villain is a sentient and rogue AI known as “the Entity” that sinks a submarine and kills its crew in the movie’s opening minutes. “If he hadn’t already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about,” said [White House aide Bruce] Reed, who watched the film with the president. – Associated Press, 10/30/2023

American presidents are just like you and me, at least in this way: They like movies. And those movies sometimes inspire thoughts and ideas. One favorite example is when back in 1985 President Ronald Reagan, right before an Oval Office address to the country, joked that Rambo: First Blood Part II showed him how to handle future hostage situations. “Boy, after seeing Rambo last night, I know what to do next time this happens,” he remarked, a comment picked up by microphones but not broadcast. (In the film, Sylvester Stallone’s second-most famous character launches a violent rescue mission to save missing Vietnam War POWs.)