Discussions about the threats and
opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI) tend to range from
mundane to dramatic. Some believe the age of superintelligent
machines is imminent and ushers in either the destruction or
salvation of humanity, while others believe that more realistic
visions of future involve "only" mass unemployment or release of
humanity from the yoke of work. As the likelihood of these
scenarios cannot be reliably assessed, this paper focuses on
certain underdiscussed aspects of how power and agency can be
hidden behind a veil of technology, how technology can be seen
as a subject of beliefs, and how the increased efficiency
brought by AI development may well be in conflict with the
physical limits of our planetary environment.