AI, machine intelligence, human intelligence, singularity... machines rule the world? I don't think so.

Jamais Cascio makes interesting conceptual points about human vs machine intelligence in this video 'The Singularity in 5 Slides.' Short story is: we build machines, the machines get smarter (AI) and they take over.

The Singularity, in Five Slides from Jamais Cascio on Vimeo.

But, how is this different from the basic Hollywood teenage machines-rule-the-world science fiction? The paradigm rules.

I say the smart money in anticipating the future is to see which human forces in the world will marshal and harness AI, and to what ends - rather than thinking it will just "take over" That is, who (which organizations or groups) will control AI, who will be made more powerful by it, and how will that change balances of power? This assumes people will always rule the world -- an explicit assumption that I'm standing up for.