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Let's assume in a near future humanity and a superintelligent-AI (created by humans, but now independent) have a sort-of-friendly relationship, to exclude all military-related factors.

Would the AI prefer having most of its infrastructure on the Moon rather than on Earth?

While for humans the Moon is an extremely depressing place to live, for the AI the Moon can provide some advantages:

• Far lower escape velocity and possibility of having space-guns (in case the AI is very interested in space-travelling)


• Lower gravity, that can allow building infrastructures with less resources


• Availability of very low temperature heat sinks (100K, during night time or on the poles)

There are also some disadvantages:

• All infrastructure must probably be bored underground for cosmic-ray and (micro)-meteorite protections


• Management of pressurised environments

I am not sure about:

• Elements availability


• Other advantages/disadvantages in living on a body with an atmosphere

Opinions?

The moon has harsh radiation.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/08sep_radioactivemoon

The surface of the Moon is baldly exposed to cosmic rays and solar
flares, and some of that radiation is very hard to stop with
shielding. Furthermore, when cosmic rays hit the ground, they produce
a dangerous spray of secondary particles right at your feet.

Radiation and especially particle radiation is very tough on any kind of stuff - incoming fast moving charged particles wallop into matter and rip it apart. That is bad if you are a biological but also bad if you are an anything made of matter. Even if you are mostly magnetic and electric fields, charged particles traversing you will mess you up. Unless the AI is made of pure thought or dreams, particle radiation will be tough on it. Even under several meters of rock, radiation can cause trouble - particles hit particles and induce secondary radiation.

Earth has 2 great defenses against the onslaught of solar radiation - the magnetosphere and many km of gaseous armor. I think your AI will choose earth.

The Earth's crust has been enriched over the course of 4.5 billion years of tectonic activity to have unusually high concentrations of certain elements that would otherwise be rare, and are indeed rare throughout the rest of the solar system.

Examples include: Copper, Rare Earth Elements, Thorium, Uranium

However, there are other elements that are abundant in asteroids that are uncommon in the Earth's crust, such as the Platinum Group.

Furthermore, the mineral Anorthite composes much of the Moon's surface, and is a good source of Aluminium. Lunar regolith contains reasonable concentrations of Helium-3, which could be extracted for the purposes of nuclear fusion if the technology is available.

Purely in terms of resources, a lunar-based entity has access to a variety of elements that are useful for structural purposes (Iron, Titanium, Aluminium), Has a few excellent sources of energy (Fusion, Solar), but may suffer due to lack of access to important elements used in modern electronics (Copper, REEs). For an AI, this could be a deal-breaker.

The Moon

The risk to any AI is humans. Sure they might be friendly now but what if tech smashing luddites take control with chants of "They took er jobs"?

The first advantage of the moon is no humans. People don't really want to live on the moon. It has no atmosphere and the low gravity is detrimental to people long term. Low gravity doesn't affect AI and no atmosphere is advantageous.

With no people, the AI has it's own territory and borders which is much safer than living in someone else's country. It can then set it's own rules and defend it's own borders.

The moon is an excellent source of H3 suitable for fusion which can supply enough energy for the AI. It's also a viable trading item with Earth which means the humans wouldn't want to harm you if you were supplying them. The AI can then use said H3 to buy anything from Earth it might be lacking.

Any of the downsides to living on the moon would be seriously outweighed by the advantages of no humans.

Why not both? It is an A.I. and as such is not limited to a single physical location. To be honest, if I were an ai, I would make making as many copies of myself my main survival strategy.

But if you must choose only one, then it depends on long term goals of the ai itself. Moon is an excellent staging point for further expansion into the solar system (and beyond). However without significant investment in infrastructure it will always lack some critical resources, which could cause delays or cause danger to ai's very survival if the stock of spare parts runs out. Lunar base would also provide certain degree of security in case humans proved not quite so friendly, however any large group of interest could just keep dropping nukes or asteroids until the ai ends up dead.

Earth has the advantage of developed technological base, every material or technology needed is only a matter of available funds. Location on Earth exposes the ai to an attack by a relatively small, possibly rogue force, but any large scale attack would mean civilian casualties and would not be taken lightly.

Also the delay in communication between Earth and Moon is not too bad, the humans might find it annoying, thus putting the ai at a disadvantage during negotiations (this can be mitigated to a certain degree by a smart ai) so an ai bent on interaction with humanity would probably choose Earth.

The big drawback of earth based location is the gravity well, stunting any interplanetary exploration plans. It doesn't really matter though if the ai doesn't plan on travel or is very patient, or develops technology like the space elevator.