> I don't want to be alarmist, but this this is symptomatic of something that's a little bit terrifying. This reminds me of essays I've read about the development of nuclear weapons.

You are being alarmist. This isn't AI like Terminator, this is AI like Deep Blue.

General AI, the thing you're worried about, is either emergent or not going to be developed for image recognition. If it's emergent, it's basically inevitable and, if not, there's nothing to worry about here.