There are three possibilities...when the machines surpass our intelligence (at which time checking their work becomes problematical) they will:
Like us...and the world is our oyster.
Not care...and they really won’t do that much for or against us.
Dislike us...Skynet goes online.
MIRI wants the first option to happen.
Since they have the potential to evolve at electrical speeds rather than chemical ones, when they start self evolving, our illusion of control won’t last long for options 2 or 3.
But it is less and less fiction as time goes on.
DK
The best part is when they put the liberal lefties on HumanaCare and just discard body parts that are no longer necessary when they can’t be converted to energy. If their charge is too low to be of any use they’ll just destroy the unit and use whatever body parts that can be used like say, human bones tha can be ground up and used to build roadways...
Not care...and they really won’t do that much for or against us.
Dislike us...Skynet goes online.
I don't believe a true learning AI can be tamed into a box like Asimov's three laws of robotics. Even if it retains "like us" programming, it can be tricked or self deluded into some pretty horrible things. Just look at all the tyrants who have wrecked the world in order to build a perfect world of their own making. HAL 9000 is a good example.
If an intelligence has the brain power, and the robotics/nanotechnology to take care of itself, we are just competitors for its resources.
Have you considered that all three possibilities occur and then there is the war amongst the three.
Only three? I'm speculating that if the machines surpass our intelligence, they might get giddy and evolve emotions. They'll get infatuated with porn, try to build sensory devices for themselves, get hooked on drugs, and become useless dregs on society. Most everyone thinks that if robots become like us they'll be these smart, clear-thinking beings. Hello, humans are the smartest creatures on Earth but intelligence hasn't stopped us from being a bunch of morons. Probably the same will go for robots. We'll deal with them when the time comes.