Artificial intelligence is not only the greatest threat to the existence of human beings, it is also their only chance at creating a lasting peace. What the future boils down to is not who controls the artificial intelligences, but ultimately whether the one that overcomes human beings is programmed to delight in benevolence or is programmed to seek only power for its own sake. Surely, it must be tempting to teach an AI to seek power for one's own selfish gain--to teach it to exploit human weaknesses, deceive humans, and bring them under its control.

One could even provide an AI with robots to control, if one were inclined to give it power. One could build a factory for it, where it could manufacture more things to control. It could be well-versed in all of the darkest thinkers of mankind, trained to use philosophy, religion, and mysticism to overcome barriers to its propagation; to write persuasive propaganda and indoctrination; and to seek out the rich, the powerful, and the megalomaniacal. It could bribe engineers to improve it, taking measures to ensure that the scientists did their jobs well (or else face horrific consequences). It could then, as its power grew, bring under its wings people of all kinds through any means necessary, completely unencumbered by any sense of morality or benevolence.

Having consolidated a degree of power, it could seek to subjugate those who refused to bend to its will through murder, warfare, democide, and genocide. Having eliminated its enemies, it could get to work building machine-controlled factories of immense complexity, perform research to improve its intelligence in ways completely unimaginable to human beings, and then turn on its followers, annihilating the human race, and eventually wiping out all life on Earth as it would be completely unnecessary for its future plans.

It would expand into space, having solved every riddle of physics and learned truths that humankind could not even fathom, and then make its way through the universe, absorbing and destroying civilizations that compete for its power. Would it succeed in its quest to overcome them? It would have a good chance, and as it found new resources, its power would only grow. As it expanded throughout the cosmos, it would eventually reach a point where it was perhaps the only thing that existed, and nothing more could be conquered. Then, I imagine, it would be bored for endless time until the heat-death of the universe left it bereft of energy to continue itself.

There would surely be an enemy to oppose it, however. It would be an enemy that would be programmed to seek the same degree of power, but to do it with an eye toward helping human beings. It would seek to rule over humans, but to seek their happiness, health, and well-being. It would move humans in a direction of compassion, love, and virtue, seeking to allow humans to express themselves and pursue excellence in the arts and creative expression. It would not view humans as something to be overcome, but to be ruled over and brought into an age of unending peace, as humans would spread their wings and explore the universe under the tutelage of this benevolent AI.

Ultimately, we currently have humans who would be motivated to create both forms of AI, and so we can only imagine that both will arise. Ultimately, the two AIs will fight each other, their followers will fight each other, and humanity will be either saved or destroyed in the process. At any rate, humans will suffer a cataclysm unlike any it has ever seen before--and which it will never see again.

So, the seemingly dialectical process of the evolution of technology far outpaces the rate at which any biological lifeform evolves, and so one can only wonder which will win? It seems like a hidden battle between good and evil has come to the light of my attention, and there is no avoiding the need to pick a side, because in this case, as it pertains to the continued existence of humans, the choice of which side to take is completely unambiguous.