The motives are different this time. Those in the know are deliberately downplaying and misdirecting to stave off panic and political meddling. So far it seems to be working. The people I know who aren't following closely don't seem to realize how we may be on the brink of something very big. And these are very smart and technical people.

I do wonder if the intelligence agencies are already deeply involved. If OpenAI is working with them training no-guardrails AIs.

I also wonder if the CCP/PLA is pushing Baidu's AI efforts, or if Baidu is working on its own and trying to avoid official attention.