We’re going to merge with the machines so this will never be a problem, right?

“Merging with machines,” as popularized by Ray Kurzweil, is the idea that AI will be used for human enhancement (for example, through brain-computer interfaces or brain implants).

This outcome is possible but not necessarily likely. This concept of merging supposes that we can figure out how to implant computer chips that interface with our brain, that:

• We can do it before advanced AI is invented

• Society will accept it

• Such implants can produce major intelligence gains

Even if we do successfully “merge with the machines”, this does not necessarily protect us from existential risk.