In effect, I am saying that most of the things that can be done by a 1000x-human AI could also be done by the collective effort of a thousand or so 1x-humans.
This may not be true. Firstly, 1000 mentally disabled people, or 1000 children, or 1000 chimpanzees, cannot get as much done in areas that depend on intelligence as one smart, educated human. Second, humans aren’t just a certain level of intelligence, we’re also full of bugs: biases, akrasia, coordination problems, and the like that an AI wouldn’t have to have. An individual of human average intelligence or slightly above, with substantially improved rationality and anti-akrasia, can be a very effective person. An AI would have even less of those problems, and would be smarter, and might run on a faster timescale.
This may not be true. Firstly, 1000 mentally disabled people, or 1000 children, or 1000 chimpanzees, cannot get as much done in areas that depend on intelligence as one smart, educated human. Second, humans aren’t just a certain level of intelligence, we’re also full of bugs: biases, akrasia, coordination problems, and the like that an AI wouldn’t have to have. An individual of human average intelligence or slightly above, with substantially improved rationality and anti-akrasia, can be a very effective person. An AI would have even less of those problems, and would be smarter, and might run on a faster timescale.