The "effective altruism" movement (of which 80,000 Hours is a part) has long been preoccupied with preventing a malevolent, superintelligent AI from killing or enslaving humanity (they call this fostering "friendly AI"). Their position is that this is a low-probability but extremely severe risk that few people are working on preventing.
Whether AI is really more dangerous than, say, pandemics or asteroids, is left as an exercise for the reader.
Whether AI is really more dangerous than, say, pandemics or asteroids, is left as an exercise for the reader.