Most moral and legal systems hold genocide in a special place, and this is natural, because systematically killing all members of a religious or ethnic group is

Most moral and legal systems hold genocide in a special place, and this is natural, because systematically killing all members of a religious or ethnic group is more damaging than killing some members. Eliminating a disease like smallpox is a much more significant achievement than simply mitigating it or treating it. When we really eliminate a disease it may never come back! This list of experts is worried about us building something that will do to us what we did to smallpox. For the same reasons as above, that is more worrying than extreme poverty and the comparison you are making is a false equivalence. Another way to look at it is, you can't fight to end poverty when you no longer exist. We can argue about whether the risk is real, but if this set of experts thinks it is, and you disagree for some reason, I would spend some time thinking deeply about whether that reason is simply based in a failure of imagination on your part, and whether you are sure enough to bet your life and everyone else's on that reason. Everyone can think of a security system strong enough that they themselves can't imagine a way to break it. Similarly, anyone can think of a reason why superhuman AGI is impossible or why it can't really hurt us.