Odd headlines about AI. Apparently, the people building it say there's a ten percent chance it could wipe out the species within the next decade. Suspicious double use of the order-giving, easy-thinking order of magnitude. Why not a seven percent chance across the next twelve years?
The fundamental error of thinking on it seems to be thinking of it as a substance. It's not a disease or a chemical. It's a way of connecting existing, conventional machines so that they act more erratically in relation to human understanding, hopefully in a beneficent manner. Quite simple. If you don't have a handle on how the machines might act, don't connect them in that manner.