Superintelligent AI and Skepticism

Abstract

It has become fashionable to worry about the development of superintelligent AI that results in the destruction of humanity. This worry is not without merit, but it may be overstated. This paper explores some previously undiscussed reasons to be optimistic that, even if superintelligent AI does arise, it will not destroy us. These have to do with the possibility that a superintelligent AI will become mired in skeptical worries that its superintelligence cannot help it to solve. I argue that superintelligent AIs may lack the psychological idiosyncracies that allow humans to act in the face of skeptical problems, and so as a result they may become paralyzed in the face of these problems in a way that humans are not.