While I appreciate that smart people will use this as simply the next phase in bicycles for the mind, I can't help but see the current AI revolution as the firs

While I appreciate that smart people will use this as simply the next phase in bicycles for the mind, I can't help but see the current AI revolution as the first tremors of the singularity. At the rate this is developing, I can't help but think AIs will be designing smarter AIs within a decade or two. People reassure themselves that these AIs are just synthesizing the internet datasets -- that they don't have "souls". I would say that doesn't matter -- whether or not a submarine can swim, a race of advanced submarines could dominate the ocean. I'm not fully convinced that the singularity requires intentionally designing a general AI, or that a glorified chatbot with some Darwinian forces applied to its existence couldn't get there. People keep thinking The Matrix or I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, but I just keep thinking Her -- that even a benevolent AI revolution means humans are pointless. Or worse, Bladerunner, since I'm quite sure that if we do create a general AI we'll still murder it after it answers 15 questions or steps out of line. That anxiety is much harder to shake than the one about my job - I thought we had more time.