Nobody is sure. This is mostly about risk. Personally I'm not absolutely convinced that AI will exceed human capabilities even within the next fifty years, but

Nobody is sure. This is mostly about risk. Personally I'm not absolutely convinced that AI will exceed human capabilities even within the next fifty years, but I do think it has a much better chance than an extinction-level meteor or supervolcano hitting us during that time. And if we're going to put gobs of money and brainpower into attempting to make superhuman AI, it seems like a good idea to also put a lot of effort into making it safe. It'd be better to have safe but kinda dumb AI than unsafe superhuman AI, so our funding priorities appear to be backwards.