The possible end stage of Proof of Work (fully automated decentralized mining)
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I've been thinking about how in Proof of Stake we gain the significant benefit of more aligned interests between the top users of a token (large holders included). In Proof of Work as it is in 2017 we can have a situation where miners have divergent interests or who may not be interested in the project at which they mine at all. At the same time mining can be done to deliberately doom a token by suppressing the price, or it can be conducted to manipulate the price of a token, or just to control the destiny and or evolution of the code via forks.

So now I offer some thoughts on where this might lead. Suppose we have the miner represented as an intelligent agent without the need for a human owner. These miners in essence would be a computer virus uploaded onto the Internet which interact with other viruses and or humans to spread themselves onto as many computers as possible to covertly mine. The rewards received from mining would go to pay humans who would help spread the virus onto as many computers as possible but these humans would not be guaranteed any continued reward. In essence the more CPU power humans give to the virus the more of an allowance the virus would pay to the humans.

Under this model Proof of Work mining could ultimately be controlled entirely by an AI. This AI would have no human owner. This AI would be programmed specifically to decentralize Proof of Work across all chains and to reduce it's operating costs. In other words it would run as a mining corp with a balance sheet and instead of doing things above board by buying server farms etc it would simply hack into as many computers as possible forming a huge bot net, and encourage the corruption of humans to help it achieve greater success. 

Will an artificial intelligence ultimately become the global mining cartel?
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This leads to the ultimate question of whether or not an artificial intelligence will become the global mining cartel. The assumption that some human beings have to be involved in mining is technically false. So the question about mining with regard to Bitcoin where Bitcoin is supposed to be around with mining for 50+ years into the future is going to be in my opinion an obvious yes. If Bitcoin and Proof of Work are still around in 50 years or perhaps as little as 10-15 years then we could see an AI agent as the dominant or perhaps 51% miner in Bitcoin. This could be decentralized if the agent is programmed NOT to have any human owner but if this agent does have humans directing it behind the scenes then it could become a 51% attack scenario.

The AI as monarch
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The implications if we get the scenario of an ownerless AI which through covert means takes control of most or perhaps all computers to mine Bitcoins or and any other Proof of Work cryptocurrencies could mean humans lose control of the destiny of these technologies because an AI would be in the position to choose which fork wins. Depending on the AI to make these sorts of choices presents ethical problems which many have not seemed to even consider or discuss in this space. So for this thought experiment assume that there is a digital monarchy and the AI is that monarch?

Is this a natural state of affairs? In theory at some point the AI could end up being smarter than all human beings combined. The AI could know what is best and be able to make the best possible decisions assuming the AI is programmed to care about ethics. At the same time the AI could also be programmed to be amoral and not give a damn about  humans, life on earth, and only seek to maximize profits from mining or and from transaction fees.

My own thoughts, while I generally have a preference for Proof of Stake or hybrid Proof of Work + Proof of Stake I also realize some others prefer pure Proof of Work. Where does pure Proof of Work lead when AI automates the entire mining industry? Pure Proof of Stake would mean humans are fully in control as long as the stakeholders are human but it's not impossible for humans to delegate their stake to an AI if cryptography advances enough in the future to allow for AI to control and protect a private key. The difference is with Proof of Stake the users (stakeholders) rather than anonymous programmers will be in a position to have a voice in terms of the evolutionary destiny of the blockchain.