What’s different in the downside case of AI is exactly what’s different in the upside case of AI: immense power that we have never seen before. We now have a f

What’s different in the downside case of AI is exactly what’s different in the upside case of AI: immense power that we have never seen before. We now have a few “live x-risks,” each one representing a high wire we cannot fall off of even once, but nor can we just choose to step off of them safely. AI is an additional potential doom we are suspended above, and if it lives up to its positive potential it’ll also be able to produce a million more x-risks by itself (e.g. viruses). Additional risk is always bad, and is not mitigated by “other technologies before it also carried risk.” It’s all additional, and this is the biggest addition so far (if it lives up to its positive technological promise).