More precisely, natural selection needs iterations. Living things with much shorter life cycles than humans evolve a whole lot more quickly than humans. Bacteria have evolved strains that resist antibiotics, and we have not had antibiotics for even one-tenth the time they would need to be around to influence the human genome very much.
The point being an AI which spews slightly varied copies of itself far and wide may evolve quite a lot faster than a human. Or, essentially the same thing, an AI which runs simulations of variations of itself to see which have potential in the real world, and emits many and varied copies of those might evolve on afterburners compared to DNA mediated evolution.
More precisely, natural selection needs iterations. Living things with much shorter life cycles than humans evolve a whole lot more quickly than humans. Bacteria have evolved strains that resist antibiotics, and we have not had antibiotics for even one-tenth the time they would need to be around to influence the human genome very much.
The point being an AI which spews slightly varied copies of itself far and wide may evolve quite a lot faster than a human. Or, essentially the same thing, an AI which runs simulations of variations of itself to see which have potential in the real world, and emits many and varied copies of those might evolve on afterburners compared to DNA mediated evolution.