That's the point: the AI in my imaginary world doesn't need desires. The human brain is acting as a "desire coprocessor".

This is such an underrated idea. It is possible that at the logical conclusion of the current trend of machines getting better at previously human-only things, it might turn out that all we can really do that a machine cannot, is to want things.

I don’t know if that is better than the alternative ending, but it’s something to think about.

It started a long ago.

I want to go to the sea and my car brings me there faster than I could if I walked. Actually, I'd never been at the sea if there were no machines (trains first).

But the train, the car, the AI are only tools. Not much different than a knife or its first ancestors, the flint shards.

Interesting, machines (and technically all human creation) not only fulfill desires, they also create them.