After they put out the AI chatbots and everybody got to play with them and make posts, now they're all coming out against it.
Why the 180°?
Might it be because the 'singularity', or whatever they call it, where AI becomes self aware, that THEY are the humans AI will eliminate?
The concept of AI becoming self aware is silly. AI can only do what it's programmed to do. ChatGPT for example just draws already existing information off the internet. It can't become self aware.
Self-awareness isn't the only possible danger from AI.
Even the earliest electronic computers suffered from coding mistakes; they sometimes did things their programmers did not expect or foresee; they sometimes glitched when hardware problems or unexpected software interactions happend.
During the computer preparations for Y2K, a valve in a gasoline pipeline in a canyon opened at the wrong time, spewed gasoline which eventually ignited, killing (if I recall correctly) two people. We've all experienced stoppages and unexpected problems with computers.
A good many stories have been written or filmed about computers just following their seemingly-benign programming, only to take it to extremes that the programmers did not foresee -- and cause serious problems as a result.
Consciousness or self-awareness are not required for harmful computer action, and the bigger and more entrenched the computer system is, the larger the potential for serious harm.
Well put. A bug in software that may have affected the lives of dozens, maybe hundreds, of people 40 years ago - that same bug would likely affect millions today. Computers are so deeply entrenched it would not take a significant failure to create significant harm.