AI safety insider: cheap extinction-risk talk is destroying the public's imagination of AI

Dr_Atoosa · x · 2026-09-11

Dr Atoosa traces how OpenAI was founded because Sam Altman & co distrusted Google with AGI, and Anthropic split off as the "responsible" alternative—yet both now race each other. She argues non-AI friends in climate and film have turned anti-AI after headlines claiming researchers predict extinction, while safety/EA voices still conflate ordinary AI risk with extinction risk, making "real risk" a catch-all. She calls this cheap talk one of the safety community's worst disservices and urges grounding the public imagination: wrong fear destroys clear thinking before any AGI does.

Related event: AI Safety Insider Slams Cheap Extinction Rhetoric for Destroying Public Risk Imagination(5 posts)→

Original post →

More from AGI Musings

AGI Musings channel →