[simseye]

I don't see many academics indulge in sensationalist doomsaying. That's the real difference here. SETI wouldn't and couldn't seek grants by proposing to contact murderous aliens.

I think academics have a general faith in goodwill of intelligence.Benevolence may be a convergent phenomenon. Maybe the mechanisms of reason themselves require empathy and goodness

[sudosysgen]

Huh? There's plenty of AI doomerism amongst academics, see Bengio, Hinton, etc...

[simseye]

Hinton makes cliched statements as if he's not given much thought to safety but feels obliged for whatever reason