[tyingq]

I don't think you need AI for anything to go wrong. Self-assemble is probably enough for something to go wrong. If they could self-assemble from some relatively abundant resource, and had a long enough lifespan, you get the grey goo problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

[adrianN]

Eh, with bacteria I wouldn't be too worried. The real world is a harsh place for bacteria. All kinds of things want to eat them. Surely something would provide balance before the whole planet is turned into a big E.coli colony.

[noir_lord]

> Surely something would provide balance before the whole planet is turned into a big E.coli colony.

Probably evolution has had a long run at evolving things to do that but how badly would we screw ourselves and the planet in the meantime before an equilibrium was reached.

The only thing that slightly cheers me up is that apart from when bacteria wiped out almost everything by pumping out oxygen we haven't really seen that situation again, if it was a low hill to climb you'd think we'd have seen it already.