It is actually a choice that we do have. We could easily build AIs that just model the world, without really trying to make them do stuff, or have particular i

It is actually a choice that we do have. We could easily build AIs that just model the world, without really trying to make them do stuff, or have particular inclinations. We could approach AI as a very pure thing, to just try to find patterns in the world without any regard to anything. A purely abstract endeavour, but one which still leads to powerful models. I personally believe that this is preferable, because I think humans in control of AI is what has the potential to be dangerous.