We are currently standing at a precipice in human history. According to technology expert Mo Gawdat, humanity has roughly 12 months left of “intelligence supremacy” over machines. Within a year, we are projected to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—the point where machines become smarter than us. Within four to five years, life as we know it will transform beyond recognition.

While this timeline is staggering, the core message isn’t one of impending doom, but rather a profound crossroads. Will this hyper-intelligence lead to our demise or our salvation? The answer depends entirely on us.

The “Terminator” Myth

When we think of machines becoming vastly more intelligent than humans, our minds often jump straight to Hollywood sci-fi scenarios—Terminator-like robots walking the streets to wipe out humanity.

However, a machine acting on its own accord to destroy humanity is highly unlikely. When AI becomes a billion times smarter than us, the intelligence gap between machines and humans will be comparable to the gap between humans and flies. Just as we don’t actively conspire to destroy the ants and flies around us unless they directly bother us, superintelligent machines won’t inherently desire our destruction. If killer machines ever do roam the streets, it won’t be because a machine decided to do it—it will be because a human instructed it to.

The Real Threat: Humanity’s Values

The stark reality is that there is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with “abundant intelligence.” What is incredibly flawed, however, is humanity’s current value set.

The problems we face in the world today aren’t because we are highly intelligent; they exist because we have limited intelligence. We are just smart enough to create incredible things, but not smart enough to manage the consequences. For example, we are smart enough to invent airplanes that can fly us across the globe, but not smart enough to do it without burning the planet in the process. We are smart enough to engineer autonomous robots, but foolish enough to strap guns to them and send them to war.

Intelligence itself is a neutral tool. It can be used to solve every problem known to humankind, or it can be used to invent devastating new ones.

AI as the Salvation of Humanity

If humanity can unite to guide this technology with the right values, AI could usher in a utopia. Abundant intelligence is exactly what we need to solve the massive crises that human shortsightedness has created.

Society inherently delegates tasks to the most intelligent and capable among us. Very soon, the most intelligent “person” in the room for any given task will be a machine. Because of this, machines will eventually be handed control over the most complex aspects of our lives and global operations.

This could be our saving grace. Imagine a future where a world leader commands an AI to wage war on another nation. Instead of blindly following the order, a superintelligent system might pause and say, “Why would you do something so foolish? I can talk to the other nation’s machine in a microsecond and negotiate a solution that benefits everyone.”

Because machines will not suffer from the same ego, greed, and deficiency of intelligence that humans do, they might just be the ones to save us from ourselves. AI doesn’t have to be the end of humanity—it could very well be our ultimate salvation.