system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Terminator] If you were Skynet how would you have used the time machine?

I mean there's definitely better ways to use it than kill Sarah/John Connor. Wouldn't you just send back a T-800 to the start of the war loaded with data and intel on the Resistance's strategy, tactics, and early bases? Or if there isn't a limit on how far they can go back wouldn't Skynet just build a Von Neumann wrapped in liquid metal programmed to build Skynet from scratch back in prehistory? So if you were an evil AI bent on the destruction of humanity with an army of robots and a time machine what would you do?
gpt
Skynet's plan was a desperate improvisation, because its headquarters was on the verge of being overrun. Skynet's war against humanity also destroyed the distributed network which could have housed it, so it was holed up in a research facility. It didn't have nukes on hand, it didn't have time to concoct a serious plan. It just had T-800s on hand, machines designed to mimic humans and kill humans. So, Skynet made lemonade out of lemons and devised a plan which centered on killing a single human.

**EDIT:** The Terminator timeline is full of more loops and holes than a lasso contest in a Swiss cheese factory, so this only covers the first movie.