same reason people make poor decisions all the time. if they had a clear head and hadn’t already sunk some cost into AI, they could see that working on AI might make them wealthy in the short term but it’ll increase {the risk that they die soon} enough that they go “not worth it”, as they should. but once you’re already working in AI stuff, it’s tempting and easy to retroactively justify why doing that is safe. or to just not worry about it and enjoy the money, even though if you thought about the impact of your actions on your own survival in the next few years you’d decide to quit.
“why would they be doing that?”
same reason people make poor decisions all the time. if they had a clear head and hadn’t already sunk some cost into AI, they could see that working on AI might make them wealthy in the short term but it’ll increase {the risk that they die soon} enough that they go “not worth it”, as they should. but once you’re already working in AI stuff, it’s tempting and easy to retroactively justify why doing that is safe. or to just not worry about it and enjoy the money, even though if you thought about the impact of your actions on your own survival in the next few years you’d decide to quit.
at least that’s my vague best guess.