The famous space race of the 1960’s cost $318 billion in today’s dollars, the Manhattan Project of the 1940’s that developed the atomic bomb cost $28 billion in today’s dollars…. $1,500 billion dollars has been spent in 2025 alone on developing Artificial Intelligence.
Why?
If you are religious, this is basically the Tower of Babel story all over again. Mankind is united to build something that far surpasses us and is a direct challenge to God Himself.
If you are atheist or agnostic like myself, people are trying to launch a new apex species on this planet. Humans are about to go from being the most fit animals on the planet to a distant second. As the apex species, mankind has wiped out innumerable other species and the species that have survived along with us are slaves kept for their meat. Imagine how a new apex species will treat us.
It doesn’t look good from either the religious or secular perspective. So why are the people behind it pushing so hard to develop it? Fear that another guy will get there first. Greed for the power and wealth they imagine they will have if they can control it (very doubtful an inferior species controls a superior one). Curiosity to see what happens. Desire to be first.
Even those directly developing AI estimate the odds of human extinction at 10-50% once we reach full general artificial intelligence.