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by jhbadger 1222 days ago
I think the word "most" is relevant. You can find people with doctorates in technical fields who believe in a Flat Earth or that the Earth was created in 4004 BC. They just aren't most of them.
3 comments

The shape and origin of the Earth are central questions of the relevant scientific fields. They've received centuries of extensive debate.

By contrast, the questions that this book explores haven't received nearly as much expert attention. And if you poll the experts on whether those questions should receive more attention, they mostly say yes!

>69% of [ML researcher] respondents believe society should prioritize AI safety research “more” or “much more” than it is currently prioritized, up from 49% in 2016.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/H6hMugfY3tDQGfqYL/what-do-ml...

Now you're moving the goalposts
The parent comment did not move the goalposts in any way -- it simply pointed out that having a PhD is not enough to prove that the author is not a crank, because a lot of other people with PhDs are also cranks.
Sure they did. First, they question the qualification of the author, then suddenly those qualifications are all relative and not really so relevant.
“No true Scotsman…”