Does AI pose a meaningful existential threat to humanity? If an existential threat is one that can lead to mass death or human extinction, and a risk of extinction is meaningful if it is (say) at least 10% as large as the risk of a nuclear holocaust, my answer is that I have no idea.
But it seems clear that AI does pose a serious threat to democratic stability. It will give anti-democratic actors a powerful new tool for spreading political misinformation and fostering discontent with elites and resentment of socially disfavored groups. More generally, AI will speed the process of social and economic change, which unsettles people and makes them more receptive to the promises of authoritarians.
This is very much worth worrying about, and it
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