It is one of our greatest advancements — Our society has made since introduction of the Internet. I don’t know when (or if) it will truly replace humans, but In the right hands and with the right mindset, this technology is a force multiplier. I work in tech and there are tasks I do regularly which are now done 2-3x faster with the help of an AI agent. And I’ve had instances where the agent helped me do something in 10 minutes that could have taken me most of the day just a few years ago.
It will be the end human civilization — I don’t necessarily mean The Matrix or The Terminator scenarios. But any time an ecosystem is disrupted (think a forest fire or coral reef damage), the change puts stress on individual plants/animals. While the overall species will persevere (probably, hopefully) at the individual level many do not make it. This time the ecosystem is all of us, the human society. We, the humans, driven by greed and power and greed for power, will cause enough disruption through the deployment of these tools and this time the disruption will be on a global scale.