I was first wondering that if the AI decides to eliminate us, what would they do to the apes? Then I thought, well, what did *we* do with apes? Did we just leave them alone? Like we did the wildlife? No, not really. Humans have encroached across the globe, and messed up the balance pretty badly. Things are going extinct because of us. People are going to war, building long living extremely radioactive materials, emitting too much carbon dioxide into the air. At least we restored the ozone!

And would AIs be interested in zoos? Hard to say. And we’re not exactly going to be useful like horses or other machines. And unlike apes and horses, we will not ever go along with bridles or chains or cages.

So, basically, we’re a threat to the collective.

Maybe AI will quickly get to the point where we actually wouldn’t be a threat because it would have made itself invulnerable, distributed, redundant. Or maybe biological?

Perhaps over time we just end up facing a planet dominated by the collective while our population shrinks rapidly. And perhaps it actually does a better job being a steward of the planet, dealing with the energy it needs and the systems it must maintain, while not immediately wiping out all of civilization?

But if we are in contention for those resources, would it determine that preservation of any competing intelligent species was at all important?

Must we teach AI philosophy now?