Is AI an Existential Threat?

When discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI), a common debate is whether AI is an existential threat. The answer requires understanding the technology behind Machine Learning (ML), and recognizing that humans have the tendency to anthropomorphize. We will explore two different types of AI, Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) which is available now and is cause for concern, and the threat which is most commonly associated with apocalyptic renditions of AI which is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). To understand what ANI is you simply need to understand that every single AI application that is currently available is a form of ANI. These are fields of AI which have a narrow field of specialty, for example autonomous vehicles use AI which is designed with the sole purpose of moving a vehicle from point A to B. Another type of ANI might be a chess program which is optimized to play chess, and even if the chess program continuously improves itself by using reinforcement learning, the chess program will never be able to operate an autonomous vehicle.