This is called "wireheading", and while it's an interesting possibility, unfortunately what we know indicates that AIs won't do it. See Stephen Omohundro, "The

This is called "wireheading", and while it's an interesting possibility, unfortunately what we know indicates that AIs won't do it. See Stephen Omohundro, "The Basic AI Drives" (http://selfawaresystems.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/ai_drives_final.pdf http://selfawaresystems.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/ai_drive...). The basic argument is that a sufficiently intelligent mind will make a distinction between the world being a certain way, and it perceiving that the world is a certain way, and that its goals will be defined in terms of the former; and since misperceiving the world impairs its ability to influence it, it will protect its perceptions from corruption.