[mavleop]

You've misunderstood the essay. A central point is to not think about AI risk in terms of matrix/sci-fi scenarios, but in terms of how it might/is likely to function in our societies.

So if you discount the sci-fi scenarios (which is a separate argument), the argument that "we need to be the first to develop AGI" doesn't hold water. If, say, China gets there first, so what? It will affect their society however it'll affect it (likely entrenching authoritarianism if i had to guess). But this has no bearing on us (speaking as an american)

[epsteingpt]

Perhaps - can't jump into the mind of the author. But a lot of it relies on theoretical and philosophical scenario planning (eg Marx)

If that's your premise, and you suggest that an authoritarian country winning on AI recursive self-improvement does not have the possibility to completely reshape the world into an authoritarian regime... I'll suggest you're falling prey to the exact 1st sentence of the article and making a political point, not a logical one :-)