AI disaster won't look like the Terminator. It'll be creepier.

When I heard five or so years back that people in Silicon Valley were getting worried about artificial intelligence causing human extinction, my initial reaction was extreme skepticism. A large reason for that was that the scenario just felt silly. What did these folks think would happen -- was some company going to build Skynet and manufacture Terminator robots to slaughter anyone who stood in their way? It felt like a sci-fi fantasy, not a real problem. This is a misperception that frustrates a lot of AI researchers.