I wouldn’t bet on the possibility that intelligences implies benevolence. Why would wisdom cause humans to have empathy with a cockroach? Some humans might have empathy with a cockroach, but that is more likely a side effect of our general capacity for altruism that most other biological agents do not share. That some humans care about lower animals is not because they were smart enough to prove some game theoretic conjecture about universal cooperation, it is not a result of intelligence but a coincidental preference that is the result of our evolutionary and cultural history.

So: it's a coincidence that some of the most intelligent creatures are also among the most altruistic and empathic? The "coincidence" hypothesis seems unlikely to me. Much more likely is that cooperation pays of especially well for large-brained creatures who can recognise each other, gossip about each other and sustain cultural traditions. Those factors might not result in a guaranteed link between intelligence and empathy - but they sure seem like a start.

Robert Wright: How cooperation (eventually) trumps conflict explains the idea in more detail.