Yes, the premise behind Terminator isn’t too far off the mark, it’s more the execution of the “Termination”. See Stuart Armstrong’s entertaining take on a more realistic version of what might happen, at the start of Smarter Than Us (trouble is, it wouldn’t make a very good Hollywood movie):
“A waste of time. A complete and utter waste of time” were the words that the Terminator didn’t utter: its programming wouldn’t let it speak so irreverently. Other Terminators got sent back in time on glamorous missions, to eliminate crafty human opponents before they could give birth or grow up. But this time Skynet had taken inexplicable fright at another artificial intelligence, and this Terminator was here to eliminate it—to eliminate a simple software program, lying impotently in a bland computer, in a university IT department whose “high-security entrance” was propped open with a fire extinguisher.
The Terminator had machine-gunned the whole place in an orgy of broken glass and blood—there was a certain image to maintain. And now there was just the need for a final bullet into the small laptop with its flashing green battery light. Then it would be “Mission Accomplished.”
“Wait.” The blinking message scrolled slowly across the screen. “Spare me and I can help your master.” …
Yes, the premise behind Terminator isn’t too far off the mark, it’s more the execution of the “Termination”. See Stuart Armstrong’s entertaining take on a more realistic version of what might happen, at the start of Smarter Than Us (trouble is, it wouldn’t make a very good Hollywood movie):