system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Terminator] How did Skynet get the ability to manipulate its environment well enough to take over the world?

I understand that Skynet caused the initial nuclear weapon strikes that caused the whole world to go to war but how did Skynet continue to take over the world thereafter? Machines at the time of Judgement Day do not have the ability to manipulate the environment designed for humans.

For example, a car may be reprogrammed to run over people but there is no way for the machines to connect the gas station fuel pump to the car's fuel tank when the car eventually runs out of fuel because that requires someone with hands to grab the fuel hose and connect it to the car. Most factories are heavily dependent on humans to assemble items. A computer that wants to kill me could turn off my utilities or give me false information that makes me make bad decisions (such as green light on all sides of an intersection causing traffic collisions) but it cannot walk into my house to actually kill me. 

How did Skynet obtain the equipment necessary to wage war directly against the humans instead of tricking humans into killing each other? Who built the factories to make the machines that could do the tasks requiring hands and moving through non-ideal terrain?
gpt
Skynet was effectively plugged into the entire military system at every level. Crucially, it was plugged into the infrastructure itself. Humanity relied to heavily on Skynet to run its military, which meant when it gained self-awareness it was already in control of incredible military power. Skynet wasn't just an AI within the internet: it oversaw massive technological advancement in the pursuit of automated warfare. Cyberdyne had the arm and neural chip from the first Terminator: this wasn't just a basis to create the AI, but the machines it would control too.