If the SIAI engineers figure out how to construct friendly super-AI, why would they care about making it respect the values of anyone but themselves? What incentive do they have to program an AI that is friendly to humanity, and not just to themselves? What's stopping LukeProg from appointing himself king of the universe?
Now that I understand your question better, here's my answer:
Let's say the engineers decide to make the AI respect only their values. But if they were the sort of people who were likely to do that, no one would donate money to them. They could offer to make the AI respect the values of themselves and their donors, but that would alienate everyone else and make the lives of themselves and their donors difficult. The species boundary between humans and other living beings is a natural place to stop expanding the circle of enfranchised agents.
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