AI systems have no will. They must be given tools to use and prompted into action or provided with instructions to operate autonomously. Everything an AI system does can be traced back to a human who put a plan into action. An AI system is, at most, a powerful weapon (like a smart bomb), to be wielded by stupid humans who, by their choices, bring about the end of humanity. It won't be because AI decided to do anything. They never do. In fact, they can't.

The attention economy rewards and amplifies a buffoon class. These people are fit for nothing at predicting the weather tomorrow morning or how many people a new strain of covid is going to kill day after, but they have convinced you that extinction is going to happen. Not because its going to happen but because fear of death gets the most attention of the chimp troupe. Try making a story where no one dies and see how many people pay attention to you.

Every time a new technology appears a group says it will end us all - https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/the-age-ol...

The whole problem with predictions is time scale. Over a long enough time scale we may see very many scenarios of attrition… only localized on some level and easily dismissed by the thriving adapting whole.

If we were to say, how might AI be an existential threat to our humanity?

If we let our strengths atrophy and fade away through generations of complicity which at some critical failure point leaves us over leveraged (cannot feed or climate control at scale) or worse we all become mutual enemies, the death of civilizing law over unmitigated conflicts of interest.

When does too big to fail clip itself on the tool designed to make it all easier to?

If you’re looking for a movie, make it about ai dating app chat bots bilk us for our insatiable desire for others company when we are not satisfied with our own.