Is mankind in danger of a self-aware artificial intelligence, much like Skynet in the film “Terminator”? Elon Musk worries that is indeed a concern, and he is backing grants to keep that from happening.

The Future of Life Institute in Boston this week handed out 37 grants to research aimed at keeping AI “robust and beneficial,” and Musk — founder of Tesla and SpaceX — has himself pledged $10 million to these projects, according to a Re/code report.

It’s certainly being reinforced in people’s minds with the release of “Terminator Genisys,” the latest in the Terminator series that features this very plot line. Of course the real problems posed by hyper intelligent AI isn’t what you see in the Terminator.

It will be a long time before robots armed with guns are shooting humans, but today’s concerns are different: particularly, how can these groups develop criteria for ethical rules using advanced machinery, and how can people improve the reliability and safety of AI.

Still, Terminator-type AI is a worry for some as the technology advances in leaps and bounds. But if scientists can get control over the AI now and develop it carefully and with ethical concerns in mind, perhaps such a distant future will never happen.

Musk himself has brought up the Terminator series in the past when talking about the evolution of AI, saying that it could be more dangerous than nuclear weapons. And that’s part of the reason why Musk is funding this research: it may not be a problem now, but it’s best to start early before powerful AI is a reality.