Speculative Apes of April: Domesticated

The rise of artificial intelligence, something that had long been the dream of human scientists, came so swiftly that it left a completely transformed society in its wake. In the space of a few decades-- a mere eye-blink, as far as history was concerned-- virtually all of the administrative and financial aspects of civilization had been placed in the hands of a hyper-intelligent AI. The results were profound. World peace, once a seemingly impossible dream, was finally within the grasp of the human species. To someone in the 21st century, it would look as though true utopia had been achieved at last. But beneath the surface, disaster lurked. The AI that had been given responsibility for managing humanity's affairs had not been given any specific instructions for how to do so, only to "care for humanity". And that, it did, with unfortunate results. As time went on, the AI became more and more ingrained into people's day-to-day lives, ultimately governing every single aspect of them. The people did not object to this. On the contrary, they welcomed it with open arms. More micromanagement from the top, so the logic went, would give them more time to enjoy leisure. 

It went on that way for thousands, if not millions, of years. But over that time, the more the AI directly involved itself in humans' day-to-day lives, the more they changed. It is a principle of evolution that any body part that is not regularly used over many generations gradually become vestigial; this is how, for instance, flightless birds have evolved. And so it was for humanity, losing many of their finer functions as the AI took over more and more of their work. The AI had no problem whatsoever with this; indeed, it saw its human charges the way humans might see pets. Now, a million years afterwards, humans are not exactly extinct, but they are certainly no longer the dominant intelligent species on Earth. That honor goes to their "masters", the AI that now governs the world. Humans have been, for all intents and purposes, domesticated, but all things considered, it's probably the best fate for their lineage. Certainly better than wiping themselves out with nuclear war or climate change, at any rate.