@david_chisnall Tom Clancy novels stopped getting new improvements in 2013 but AI systems keep getting more capable, and will certainly continue to do so in the near future, while there's currently zero oversight, not to mention the tragicomedy-level incompetence these frontier labs demonstrated with regards to monitoring and supervising their autonomous agents.

i think the panic is easy to understand, it's very human. the denial, motivated reasoning, the blind optimism, all are very understandable.

for example see Pinker. he agreed that technology will continue to improve, but claimed it will never get omnipotent because "there's laws of physics" while conveniently ignoring the not so small regime between human and physical limits.

it seems his humanistic optimism provides him a conclusion, which he believes so strongly that he goes on a press tour without (willfully or not) actually engaging with the topic beforehand.