AIs have replaced aliens as our greatest world-destroying fear

I was thinking about this today. The idea of a super-intelligent AI adversary draws my concern for only one reason.

The biggest threat to humans from AI is that machines will learn all about us from the very data we store about ourselves. Facebook, Google, amd countless other banks of data can form a patchwork quilt of facts, photos, friends and locations that characterize everything from our preferences and habits to our fears and motivations.

At least the fear of a world destroying AI is based upon a real and rational risk. The toxicity of interstellar space is so extreme and the distances so vast that the energy needed to travel is basically unrealistic for most advanced civilizations. At least AI is a rational risk and people are facing rational fears.

Don't use Facebook or Gmail. It's not that hard.