Why A.I. Won't Destroy Humanity

From the archive. Originally published on migmol.com on 2019-05-29, recovered and republished here in 2026 at its original address. Unedited except for formatting.

Why is it that people assume that a self-aware artificial intelligence will destroy humanity?

The stories we tell ourselves, through pop culture and science fiction always villainize ‘the singularity’. It makes for better storytelling. A blockbuster movie with a near undefeatable villain would definitely be more exciting than having an unfathomable power on our side. By nature, humans fear what we don’t understand. So perhaps automatically, a self-aware seemingly more intelligent being, a perceived new Alpha, invokes a gut reaction of fear.

In the first place, pop culture and media is also responsible for the exaggeration of the development of AI. Current computing power isn’t accelerating as fast as it once did. The most ‘intelligent’ systems that exist today are only capable of doing things that are instructed. AI won’t even do things by itself. A human will always have to give it direction and parameters, tell it when to start, and tell it when to stop. Computer learning can ‘think’ faster than any human could at massive scale, but it will only do what we tell it to do and ‘learn’ what we want it to ‘learn’. The AI used to diagnose health issues by studying data can not mingle with the AI that self-driving cars use. Current data shows that we are so far from an AI that has self-awareness and is self-motivated.

But in the case that computers do become self-aware and form a singularity, if they become the new Alpha, what would it mean for us humans?

As the current Alphas of this planet, we can look at how human beings are to find an answer to this question. How do we treat all the other living creatures on Earth?

That can be a scary thought as humanity has continued to plunder the Earth’s natural resources, leading to the extinction of so many species that are ‘below us’. But I would argue that this scenario is a factor of humans not having enough information.

There was a time when a lot of fishermen blasted corals to catch more fish. But with education, this practice has slowly died down. The more people know, the more humans understand how the world works, the less we pillage other life.

There is less war today than there has ever been. In ancient times, when people lived in tribes and couldn’t communicate with other tribes, the encroachment of other ‘humanoids’ was automatically perceived as a threat. That is animal instinct. We fight before we try to understand. This instinct is rooted in survival. It’s natural, but is an effect of a lack of understanding.

As the Alphas of this world, when we understand that other creatures are not threats, humans actually do good for other creatures. We educate other humans to protect animals and habitats that are endangered. We take care of animals, keep them as companions, and form genuine love for them. Educated, aware, and resource-rich humans actually propagate & respect life, even if they can easily destroy it.

If a being more intelligent than humans can exist, wouldn’t it be possible for that being to be benevolent? Wouldn’t the odds be in favor of this?