system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Terminator] what exactly did the machines enslaved humans for?

What was it that the machines couldn't do faster and more efficiently than humans can that they didn't exterminate all humans and kept some slaves?
gpt
There are a handful of possibilities:

1. Labor. Not all of the systems Skynet needed to operate were fully autonomous. Skynet had complete control of military systems, but automation hadn't spread to industry before Judgement Day, which means Skynet would need humans to operate some of the factories and labs that keep its operations going.
1. Research. Skynet might have experimented on humans in order to better understand, and then kill, them.
1. Raw material for the cyborgs. We know they were growing human flesh, and all of the synthetic meat scientists are currently producing require some kind of a starting base. Skynet was almost certainly making people slurry and using it to make Arnolds.
1. To protect them. In some continuities, or some versions of some continuities, Skynet's goal wasn't to destroy all of mankind, it was to eliminate all danger to humanity. To do this it destroyed the powers capable of ending the world (the US, Russia, China, and the other nuclear powers) and kept a remnant of humanity safe in a "perfect" environment. Kind of like a petting zoo.