I like the peice not because it demonstrates that the problem is serious or absurd. Rather it points out how ill-formed it is. AI's threat is certainly not in

I like the peice not because it demonstrates that the problem is serious or absurd. Rather it points out how ill-formed it is. AI's threat is certainly not in a dozen of instances with super-himan intelligence. It was framed that way because technologists are intellectually oriented and see intelligence as power. I'm not disputing that it isn't, but it overlooks a lot. A hyper-charismatic (sycophantic even) 120IQ AI poses a much bigger threat than a hyper-intelligent average charisma AI. Why? Because the ability to play a social war of attrition on beliefs is the wicked problem of AI. You're not up against the world's best super intelligent hacker, you're up against 1000 24/7 advertising agencies or 1000 GRUs. You probably can't even conclusively prove they're manipulating anything at all. So no, the problem is ill-framed and reflects more about us than any real threat. "If God were an object to the bird, he would be a winged being." Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity. Thus, "If AI were all powerful[a threat], it would be hyper-intelligent," is equally ridiculous.