Talk about artificial intelligence (AI) long enough and someone will inevitably ask, “Will robots take over and kill us all?”

The idea of a robot apocalypse is an existential threat: something that could extinguish humanity. Most AI researchers don’t have this threat on their minds when they go to work because they consider it in the realm of science fiction.

Still, it’s an interesting question — no one knows for sure what direction AI will take.

A few experts have put some thought into the problem, though, and it turns out that the most common robot apocalypse scenarios are likely pure fiction.

Here’s why.