[visarga]

> why do they need robots when they are used to hiring poor people to serve them?

It's not going to matter what they need. The technology advances with a rhythm of its own. It has done so for hundreds of years, predictably. Not even big wars were able to put a dent in its pace. Just like Google replaced libraries as our source of information, Napster affected the music industry and social networks affected news, there's going to be an AI transition and it will happen no matter what. It's important to keep access to AI open and not place its power just in the hands of a few.

It will be the continuation of the mobile phone era. Mobile phones with search engines and social networks empowered billions of people, they are their main communication device, some don't even have a TV or laptop, but they still have a phone. All people got to have phones, and all our modern phones are amazing compared to the best phones from a decade ago. What technology has given to everyone not even money could buy a mere 10 years ago. But on the other hand, the phone empowered surveillance and the big brother.

The AIs will amplify this effect even more. They will empower people to a higher degree than phones did, but they will make people easy targets for manipulation. They will allow an extremely intimate knowledge about a person and direct access to influence him/her, to the technologists who control the AI.