With nanoplastics, ocean acidification, global heating, rising sea levels, falling crop yields and the related Holocene extinction at work, I think AI is going to have to play a serious game of catchup.
And how reasonable is that we would have autonomous agents a bit smarter than humans in the nearish future? Very low, I'd say, about the same as the odds I'd give a year ago for GPT4? Not odds I'd be happy to take for the _destruction of humanity_.
AI is and will continue to be developed for the purposes of war. Moreso the growth of the capability of AI could lead to destabilization and the occurrence of nuclear war.
For example the capability of MADD working keeps things somewhat stable "I kill you, you kill me" isn't great. But if I develop AI that could track all the sub, and knock out the nukes before they launch, this could push nation states to attack first before their capability is taken out.
There is a continuum of issues here spanning from "People problems -> people + AI problems -> AI problems"
By adding more AI we're just expanding the size of the problem space.
Maybe the "they're made of meat" phase is the great filter. Why would aliens speak with meat based organisms.