[guscost]

Yes, in my opinion. Consider the amount of destruction caused by machined metal and chemicals in the 20th century. Now consider how much more destruction (or progress) is possible just by adding "naive" computer technology to those things.

In our experience, technology only reaches its constructive and/or destructive potential when humans use it. There's no rule saying this must always be the case, but when we ignore our experience it's easy to get caught up in fantasy, and right now the hand-wringing about "what happens when the computers wake up" is a silly distraction. There are plenty of threats posed by computer technology already, often from its integration with hardware, but also from information processing on its own. I don't mean to be pessimistic or spin another variety of doomsday story, but I am suggesting that we talk about present reality more often than all of this Terminator nonsense!

> Why are these leaders frightening people with claims that AI can cause WW-III or ruin the world?

Probably because they run companies that benefit from this idea being shared.