Sooner or later any despotic state will own the road to Armageddon through AI and most nations have probably started down that path already. It's how countries compete and nothing can be done to halt it. Unlike nuclear weapons there's little chance it will result in stalemate or deterrent.
More emphasis is needed on scenarios that might better be expressed as The Battle of the AIs or AI v AI, this seldom seems be to referred to but for my money is where the catastrophes are most likely to be found. This is where the great Cyber Wars of the future will be won and lost, then lost again and won back and so on and so forth - but ultimately a race to the bottom.
For all the great benefits you can find about this technology, history and the lessons we fail to learn suggest this power in the hands of the hunter gatherers mind will be abused to extremes and the world will not be a better place for it - or at least if it is, the power to counter its benefits will be unleashed before too long and with cataclysmic effect.
