I think that if ants were smart enough to make that counter-offer, humans would probably regard them as smart enough to be blameworthy for invading the house in the first place, and the counter-offer would be rejected as extortion.
Analogy: Imagine some humans from country A move into country B and start living there. Country B says “we didn’t give you permission to live in our country; leave or we’ll kill you”. The humans say “killing us would cost you $20k; we’ll leave if you pay us $1k.” How do you predict this negotiation ends?
Now, if we’re talking about asking the ants to vacate an empty lot where they’ve lived for many years so that you can start building a new house there, then I could see humans paying the ants to leave. (Though note that the ants may still lose more value by giving up their hive than the humans are willing to pay them to avoid the cost of exterminating them.)
I think that if ants were smart enough to make that counter-offer, humans would probably regard them as smart enough to be blameworthy for invading the house in the first place, and the counter-offer would be rejected as extortion.
Analogy: Imagine some humans from country A move into country B and start living there. Country B says “we didn’t give you permission to live in our country; leave or we’ll kill you”. The humans say “killing us would cost you $20k; we’ll leave if you pay us $1k.” How do you predict this negotiation ends?
Now, if we’re talking about asking the ants to vacate an empty lot where they’ve lived for many years so that you can start building a new house there, then I could see humans paying the ants to leave. (Though note that the ants may still lose more value by giving up their hive than the humans are willing to pay them to avoid the cost of exterminating them.)