But this is exactly my point. We can already solve the problem of humans and we aren’t bound by technological constraints. If AI is there chugging along after all humans are rendered “useless” then is it much different than the pre-human era where humans weren’t there to do whatever it is we are doing?

The whole thought experiment of “what if AI makes humans obsolete” is pointless because it assumes there is some universal goal that transcends human existence which there is not. We are not here to do anything but maintain our own existence, and existing with as little effort as possible is actually our end goal. The universe has no other purpose than for us to exist in it.