C. The proponents of the original arguments were misinterpreted, or overemphasised some of their beliefs at the expense of others, and actually these shifts are just a change in emphasis.
My interpretation of what happened here is that more narrow AI successes made it more convincing that one could reach ASI by building all of the components of it directly, rather than necessitating building an AI that can do most of the hard work for you. If it only takes 5 cognitive modules to take over the world instead of 500, then one no longer needs to posit an extra mechanism by which a buildable system is able to reach the ability to take over the world. And so from my perspective it’s mostly a shift in emphasis, with small amounts of A and B as well.
My interpretation of what happened here is that more narrow AI successes made it more convincing that one could reach ASI by building all of the components of it directly, rather than necessitating building an AI that can do most of the hard work for you. If it only takes 5 cognitive modules to take over the world instead of 500, then one no longer needs to posit an extra mechanism by which a buildable system is able to reach the ability to take over the world. And so from my perspective it’s mostly a shift in emphasis, with small amounts of A and B as well.