Even strongly superhuman 1 by itself is entirely harmless, even if very general within the problem space of 1.
Type 1 intelligence is dangerous as soon as you try to use it for anything practical simply because it is powerful. If you ask it "how can we reduce global temperatures" and "causing a nuclear winter" is in its solution space, it may return that. Powerful tools must be wielded precisely.
See, that's what is so incredibly irritating about dealing with people who lack any domain specific knowledge. You can't ask it, "how can we reduce global temperatures" in the real world.
You can ask it how to make a model out of data, you can ask it what to do to the model so that such and such function decreases, it may try nuking this model (inside the model), and generate such solution. You got to actually put a lot of effort, like replicating it's in-model actions in real world in mindless manner, for this nuking to happen in real world. (and you'll also have the model visualization to examine, by the way)
Why does SI/LW focus so much on AI-FOOM disaster, with apparently much less concern for things like
Why, for example, is lukeprog's strategy sequence titled "AI Risk and Opportunity", instead of "The Singularity, Risks and Opportunities"? Doesn't it seem strange to assume that both the risks and opportunities must be AI related, before the analysis even begins? Given our current state of knowledge, I don't see how we can make such conclusions with any confidence even after a thorough analysis.
SI/LW sometimes gives the impression of being a doomsday cult, and it would help if we didn't concentrate so much on a particular doomsday scenario. (Are there any doomsday cults that say "doom is probably coming, we're not sure how but here are some likely possibilities"?)