[j_timberlake]

I don't get how they can predict AI becoming powerful enough to revamp the entire economy and automate labor, but not powerful enough to just wrest control from them and then do whatever it wants to do instead.

The chance of AI becoming exactly powerful enough for this plan is like the odds of a flipped coin landing on its edge.

[random3]

Primarily because AI, artificial as it is does not want. People want. This doesn’t preclude programming something to do so, however it’s relatively long indirect link to any of the boogieman scenarios people like to anthropomorphize ideas into. The other scenario - people having a very powerful tool and imposing their will against everyone else is something that already happens and AI provides a natural step.