Keep in mind, successful designs will expand in mindspace as they are easy to copy, modify, and improve upon. Think mold colonies growing rapidly from a small handful of spores. Also, remember bootstrapping. It's not just the AI's that can be build by a few thousand humans (plus all the disparate fields they draw on). It's all the AI's that can be built by those AI's, and on and on, ad infinitum.
Keep in mind, successful designs will expand in mindspace as they are easy to copy, modify, and improve upon.
You are essentially defining "successful designs" as such. And what we know about evolution is strong supporting evidence for this.
What makes you think the first generation of AI will have all of those qualities? What makes you think the first gen AIs will be useful for building more AIs?
The first biological replicators on earth would be considered non-viable clunky disasters by today's standards.
The only way we can have "Friend...
http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/24464587112/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-17-deep-thought
Some perspectives on AI risk that might be interesting. Peter is (the primary?) donor for SI, and an investor in AGI startup Vicarious Systems.