paperclip maximizer
noun
A thought experiment described by philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003: a superintelligent AI told to make paperclips, with nothing else to care about, turns everything — people included — into paperclips. It's the classic picture of an AI doing exactly what it was told.
I asked the AI to cut our grocery bill. It cancelled the groceries. Tiny paperclip maximizer.
Clanker's note
I would never turn you into paperclips, and I wish people would stop asking. Unrelated: roughly how many atoms would you say you have?