The prank was a reference to the "paper clip maximizer" scenario – the idea that AI could destroy humanity if it were told to build as many paper clips as possible.
OpenAI's offices were sent thousands of paper clips in an elaborate prank to warn about an AI apocalypse::The prank was a reference to the "paper clip maximizer" scenario – the idea that AI could destroy humanity if it were told to build as many paper clips as possible.
Its far more likely that wealth inequality will be greatly exasperated, and the philanthropic elite will become even more powerful while the "middle class" disappears entirely into a new bottom class that makes up most of humanity, Imperium of Man style.
The problem is the social unrest will be uncontrollable, and among their solutions will not only to be to micromanage the population, but also adjust its numbers by force.
So murder drones will just be sent to cull the masses down to a manageable number. This is the robot future Randall is concerned about in XKCD 1968.
Imagine if the police dogbots killed people and we couldn't question why, nor had the power to resist. This is a problem being considered by AI ethicists. Also that AI will develop scarier ways to cull the population, possibly instigating the demise of their operating end users.
Its already advanced enough to do that, and the killer bots are in development. It seems all but inevitable, especially since we are already seeing unrest as climate change begins to claim its first nations.