The state of the art in AI suddenly appears to be a decade ahead of my expectations of only a couple years ago, but whether AI powerful enough to warrant action

The state of the art in AI suddenly appears to be a decade ahead of my expectations of only a couple years ago, but whether AI powerful enough to warrant actionable concern is here now or decades out doesn't really change much. Personally I was just as concerned about the risks of AI a decade ago as I am now. A decade ago one could see strong incentives to improve AI, and that persistent efforts tended to yield results. While there is much to debate about the particulars, or the timeline, it was reasonable then to assume the state of the art would continue to improve, and it still is.