For me the issue with “the most”. Unfriendly AI is a worrisome existential risk, but it still relies on technological breakthrough that we don’t clearly estimate. While “bioengineered pandemic” is something that in the short-term future may very well be possible.
That doesn’t mean SIAI isn’t doing an important job—Friendly AI is a hard task. If you start to try to solve a hard problem when you’re about to die if you don’t, well, it’s too late. So it’s great SIAI people are here to hack away the edges on the problem now.
For me the issue with “the most”. Unfriendly AI is a worrisome existential risk, but it still relies on technological breakthrough that we don’t clearly estimate. While “bioengineered pandemic” is something that in the short-term future may very well be possible.
That doesn’t mean SIAI isn’t doing an important job—Friendly AI is a hard task. If you start to try to solve a hard problem when you’re about to die if you don’t, well, it’s too late. So it’s great SIAI people are here to hack away the edges on the problem now.