The technologies leading towards AGI/SMI are advancing. The technologies needed to make it safe are also advancing. The goal is not to ban SMIs - it's to ensure

The technologies leading towards AGI/SMI are advancing. The technologies needed to make it safe are also advancing. The goal is not to ban SMIs - it's to ensure that it's safe. Think of it as a race, between research into capabilities into safety and control measures. If the safety and control research is sufficiently advanced when SMI appears, then it can solve humanity's other problems for us. If that safety research isn't sufficiently advanced, then we're in very serious trouble. This is the idea behind differential technological advancement: favor technologies that help us make safe AGIs that will help us, over technologies that are too risky. Right now, safety-oriented AGI research is severely under-funded, so it's hard to tell the difference. Hence the need for monitoring and research. And while we certainly hope that safety will get on track to win the race, if it looks like it isn't, a regulatory body and regulatory framework may provide a saving throw.