OK, I think this is a helpful objection because it helps me further define the "tool"/"agent" distinction. In my mind, an "agent" works towards goals in a freeform way, whereas a "tool" executes some kind of defined process. Google Search is in no danger of killing me in the process of answering my search query (because using my atoms would help it get me better search results). Google Search is not an autonomous agent working towards the goal of getting me good search results. Instead, it's executing a defined process to retrieve search results. A tool is a safer tool if I understand the defined process by which it works, the defined process works in a fairly predictable way, and I'm able to anticipate the consequences of following that defined process. Tools are bad tools when they behave unpredictably and create unexpected consequences: for example, a gun is a bad tool if it shoots me in the foot without me having pulled the trigger. A piece of software is a bad tool if it has bugs or doesn't ask for confirmation before taking an action I might not want it to take. Based on this logic, the best prospects for "tool AIs" may be "speed superintelligences"/"collective superintelligences"--AIs that execute some kind of well-understood process, but much faster than a human could ever execute, or with a large degree of parallelism. My pocket calculator is a speed superintelligence in this sense. Google Search is more of a collective superintelligence insofar as its work is parallelized. You can imagine using the tool AI to improve itself to the point where it is just complicated enough for humans to still understand, then doing the world-modeling step at that stage. Also if humans can inspect and understand all the modifications that the tool AI makes to itself, so it continues to execute a well-understood defined process, that seems good. If necessary you could periodically put the code on some kind of external storage media, transfer it to a new air-gapped compute