Pinker argued in Enlightenment Now that self-preservation and dominance motives come bundled with intelligence in humans due to natural selection but are not inherent to engineered intelligent systems.

True if Enlightenment Now (2018) contains an argument that motives such as self-preservation and dominance came bundled with intelligence in Homo sapiens through natural selection, but are not inherent to engineered intelligent systems (e.g. in its discussion of AI risk). Mostly true if the book makes this argument with slightly different wording or naming of the motives (e.g. 'dominance' or 'will to power'), or if it appears mainly in Enlightenment Now with a close version elsewhere. Mixed if the argument appears only partly in the book. Mostly false if Pinker made the argument but in another work (an essay or other book) and not in Enlightenment Now. False if Pinker did not make this argument.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 March 2018 – Shtetl-Optimized Shtetl-Optimized (Scott Aaronson's blog) · 28 March 2018

   “Second, it’s only humans’ specific history that causes them to think immediately about conquering and taking over, as goals to which superintelligence would be applied. An AI could have different motivations entirely—and it will, if its programmers have any sense.”

2. E2 The case for optimism Vox · 12 February 2018

   “But we have these desires because we’re products of evolution. An artificial intelligence will not have evolved in this way, and there’s no reason to assume it will share the desire to dominate or maximize its power.”

3. E3 An Open Letter To Steven Pinker On AI Scott Alexander (Astral Codex Ten / readscottalexander.com) · 6 October 2026

   “My principal contribution to mass discourse on existential risk is a 31-page chapter called “Existential Risk” in my 2018 book Enlightenment Now.”

4. E4 March 2018 – Shtetl-Optimized Scott Aaronson (Shtetl-Optimized blog) · 28 March 2018

   “An AI could have different motivations entirely—and it will, if its programmers have any sense.”

5. E5 (none) stevenpinker.com (hosted PDF of Pinker essay 'Tech Prophecy and the Underappreciated Causal Power of Ideas') Own record

   “It just so happens that the intelligence in Homo sapiens is a product of Darwinian natural selection, an inherently competitive process. In the brains of that species, reasoning comes bundled with goals such as dominating rivals and amassing resources.”

6. E6 We're told to fear robots. But why do we think they'll turn on us? Popular Science · 14 February 2018

   “In the brains of that species, reasoning comes bundled (to varying degrees in different specimens) with goals such as dominating rivals and amassing resources.”

7. E7 Enlightenment Now | Critical Reflections, Critical Reviews, & Notes Vialogue (WordPress blog) · 22 September 2018

   “It just so happens that the intelligence in one system, Homo sapiens, is a product of Darwinian natural selection, an inherently competitive process.”

8. E8 “There's Nothing Mystical About the Idea that Ideas... Quillette · 1 December 2023

   “Those two traits do come bundled in Homo sapiens, because we’re products of an inherently competitive process, natural selection, and it’s easy to project human flaws onto other intelligent systems.”

9. E9 “There's Nothing Mystical About the Idea that Ideas... Quillette · 1 December 2023

   “An intelligent system will pursue whatever goals are programmed into it, and keeping itself in power or even alive indefinitely need not be among them.”

The only evidence clearly tied to Enlightenment Now (E10) shows the book saying that intelligence in Homo sapiens comes from natural selection. The claim that these motives are not inherent to engineered systems appears only in other works or interviews (E4, E8, E11, E12) or in sources not shown to quote the book (E1, E9). The evidence therefore does not settle whether the book makes the full argument.