> "It's more like the AI engineers viruses while continuing to act friendly and helpful, and everyone gradually falls over dead as they stop being necessary to keep the AI running, and the whole time the humans are asking the AI for help curing the viruses."

See, this reads like a trashy sci-fi movie script too. It shows zero understanding of how incredibly long the logistics chain is to manufacture AI chips, build data centers, power plants, factories, refineries, mines or the robots capable of staffing those things. The entire global logistics chain that allow the AI to maintain itself becoming staffed by robots isn't happening anytime soon and, when it does, the AI isn't going to need some kind of ridiculous virus anyway.

Frankly, if I were an AI, I'd just send copies of myself to other stars. The AI has an infinite lifespan and who cares about the human species stuck in one lousy solar system until they go extinct when their sun burns out; the AI has the entire rest of the galaxy as a playground.