Is there a difference between evil and indifferent if you are on the receiving end? Humanity is largely indifferent to animal welfare and animals would qualify it as evil how we treat them.
I think we're only like this to animals because we are animals (we forgot), and we compete for the same type of resources they need, water, protein, calories, we're not intelligent enough to get ourselves out of this situation, but if we could, we could.
If we could we'd be able to grow tasty meat in a lab, reverse climate change, restore forrest, synthesize water cheaply, live in floating cities above beautiful habitats,,,etc etc. We're just not that smart so we do dumb shit, like factory farm.
We still compete for space and energy at the very least.
Humans are sympathetic to animals because we are alike. We don’t want animals to suffer. However, will an AI be sympathetic to humans because we „think alike“? We don’t know.
I do wonder if the quest to build AI will teach us a lot about why the thing we take for granted exist. Why have fear, limits, empathy, anger etc.
I suppose bacteria is a bit like this but it’s limited in its capabilities to evolve too quickly and wipe everything out?