Suppose your AI’s goal was “preserve myself”. Ignoring any philosophical issues about denotation, here self-preservation is worthwhile even if the goal changed. If the AI, by changing itself into a paperclip maximizer, could maximize its chances of survival (say because of the threat of other Clippies) then it would do so. Because self-preservation is a instrumentally convergent goal, it would probably survive for quite a long time as a paperclipper—maybe much longer than as an enemy of Clippy.
This is a total nit pick, but:
Suppose your AI’s goal was “preserve myself”. Ignoring any philosophical issues about denotation, here self-preservation is worthwhile even if the goal changed. If the AI, by changing itself into a paperclip maximizer, could maximize its chances of survival (say because of the threat of other Clippies) then it would do so. Because self-preservation is a instrumentally convergent goal, it would probably survive for quite a long time as a paperclipper—maybe much longer than as an enemy of Clippy.