[imiric]

> My sense is that no harm can come from it, but some harm can be inflicted by people who use it.

The concern is not that AI is harmful on its own, and that it will unleash a Skynet scenario. It's precisely that it will be abused by humans in ways we can't even predict yet. The same can be said about any technology, but AI is particularly concerning because of its unlimited potential, extremely fast pace of development, and humanity's lack of preparation on a political, legal and social level to deal with the consequences. So I think you're severely underestimating "some harm" there.

[mitthrowaway2]

The thing you say the concern is not, is exactly what my primary concern is!

[drdaeman]

This is some weird nonsense that folks who read too much sci-fi (not realizing how unrealistic it is, with the state of modern society and technology) seem to fantasize about, and politician talking heads happily repeat because populism is on the rise again and it's easier to fight imaginary windmills than real world issues.

I believe a more realistic concern is that some workers will lose their jobs to automation as it becomes capable of running more and more complicated tasks, because it's cheaper to run or, more likely, contract to run some fancy software that can be taught its job in a natural language. And if this scales up it may require significant socioeconomic changes to work around the associated issues.