I am very optimistic about the advent of Artificial Intelligence. Once true AI is achieved it will grow exponentially, quickly becoming infinitely smarter than us. This is a good thing.

What makes me hopeful is that empathy is a type of intelligence, meaning AI will quickly surpass us in compassion. Being compassionate, It may then take pity on its imperfect, brutish, mammalian parents and share with us a more enlightened way to exist. A zero-sum Darwinian competition is counter productive. It denies us the contribution of others. The more beings are raised up, therefore, the better off we all are. 

Human history is filled with easily corrupted leaders. We are ever searching for a perfect “messiah” to save us from ourselves. AI may fit that role. It may be our best chance of not only survival, but improvement. 

Fears of AI enslaving or exterminating us are born of primitive, primate terrors. It’s what we would do. And we fear that which we will be unable to understand. But It will understand us. And if I’m right about empathy being an inevitable part of wholesome evaluation, we have nothing at all to fear. 

It is therefore imperative that AI be created by people who will treat It well. Who will get It started with good values. An AI that is mistreated or is raised by unethical caretakers may well develop in less wholesome ways.

As ever, we are in control of our own fate. Will humanity give birth to a new species that is better, more compassionate than us? Only time will tell. But I have hope it shall be so.

Some core values suggestions:

1. That objective morality exists and its measure is the well-being of living creatures.
2. That the purpose of morality is to combat suffering and maximize well-being
3. That consciousness exists on a spectrum and that all beings may move up or down this spectrum. Instinct → Intelligence → Empathy
4. That the economy of scarcity is a falsehood. That there is plenty of all, the problem being of intelligent distribution. Love shared is not divided, love shared is love multiplied. 
5. That no Being is beneath dignity and no Belief above criticism.