As stated by OpenAI in their mission statement:

"OpenAI's mission is to build safe AGI, and ensure AGI's benefits are as widely and evenly distributed as possible. We expect AI technologies to be hugely impactful in the short term, but their impact will be outstripped by that of the first AGIs."

For those who've never heard of the term AGI before, the difference between your run-of-the-mill AI and an AGI is that the latter entails an AI with a similar intelligence capacity as that of the average human being. We're not just talking about an AI that can defeat human beings in either board games or video games; we're talking about an AI that is capable of matching the average human being in similar cognitive skills, which includes self-awareness.

Once AI become self-aware, the cognitive hierarchy will be transformed forever where we humans are no longer the dominant species.

In a way, those who think of the sci-fi film A.I. whenever actual AI is mentioned aren't actually all that wrong. Like in the film, within the coming years, we'll witness the birth of an AI that is able to match us in every way shape or form. When that occurs, our longstanding reign of victory in the game of life will finally reach its end.

Which then raises multiple questions: will we humans need to fear of what such an intelligence may do to us? Or better yet, will these newly "awakened" AGI need to fear of what we humans will do to them, as depicted in the film A.I.?

Will there be a civil war between humans and AI or will we live in harmony, with the likely merging between the two? I, personally, believe there's a good chance the latter will occur, as opposed to civil war. After all, while many erroneously believe that evolution has everything to do with survival of the fittest, in reality, it isn't the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent, that survives; it's the one that is most adaptable to change.

Meaning, while AI will most assuredly reach the top of the cognitive hierarchy, if we humans wish to survive such an event, then we'll need to begin figuring out ways of adapting to such a significant change. Someday, we'll either merge or perish. The choice is ultimately ours.