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It is now perhaps axiomatic to declare that artificial intelligence will revolutionize the world, as researchers and industry insiders are projecting the novel technology to become the greatest technological breakthrough in human history.

There has been a flurry of discussion in both our local and international contexts — and with good cause. We must remain steadfast to ensure our youth, local workforces, and environment are not negatively impacted by this burgeoning technology.

I wish to accentuate, however, a somewhat neglected area of public discussion around AI developments. Specifically, we urgently need to re-evaluate the ethos of humanity, particularly cognizant of the emergence of this digitally superintelligent species.

If artificial superintelligence (ASI) is ultimately achieved, leading academics theorize that these digital agents will be sentient, conscious, and astronomically more intelligent and powerful than us. In fact, numerous scholars believe AI to already possess some level of consciousness in its current iteration. This position is held by eminent evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, for example.

The last time oil-tankers were being shot up in the Persian Gulf, back in the 1980s, it was Saddam Hussein’s brutal tyranny in Iraq versus Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolutionary Islamist regime in Iran.

The United States backed Saddam because he was just another murderous thug, whereas the new regime in Tehran was an actual threat to American interests. It had overthrown Iran’s American-backed puppet king and wanted to spread its Islamist ideology across the region.

So, of course, Ronald Reagan’s administration chose Saddam’s side. It sent Iraq arms by clandestine means (because Congress wouldn’t authorize it) and even provided targeting information for Iraqi poison gas attacks on Iran. The Americans chose the “lesser evil,” but at least they knew it was evil.

Once in a while they would even say it out loud, quoting U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger: “It’s a shame that both sides can’t lose.” But they never did anything about it, and after eight years of slaughter, the war ended in a no-score draw.