I think the danger lies in our tendency to ignore the big picture. We work in teams and groups and we create these bubbles where everyone just assumes that a ba

I think the danger lies in our tendency to ignore the big picture. We work in teams and groups and we create these bubbles where everyone just assumes that a basic set of things has been figured out by other people. You can second-guess what's going on around you, but it's not your job to test if the entire thing makes any sense at all (that recent CIA report might be an example of this). If you work at some tech giant doing AI research, you focus on the next task. Even asking something like "should we really be gathering that info about customers?" will either get you fired or bullied (I imagine) - because that's some lawyer's job, or your boss's, or even that of your country's legislator. Who are you to doubt the direction your entire field is going, anyway? Some of the best AI researchers working on this problem probably won't stop the community from pushing towards it. The majority of people in general is happy with just doing their job.