I've erased millions, if not billions, of information automata while working with evolutionary algorithms. How do I know I'm not killing something living, when

I've erased millions, if not billions, of information automata while working with evolutionary algorithms. How do I know I'm not killing something living, when the whole idea is that they truly live? I don't. While in retrospect they weren't complex enough to really think, I'm so sure that they'll be unfriendly AI that I made the decision beforehand to erase them no matter what, "dead or alive."