I‘d say there’s a third option - anyone working in the space realized they can make a fuckton of money if they just say how „dangerous“ the product is, because not only is it great marketing to talk do that, but you might also get literal trillions of dollars from the government if you do it right.

I don’t have anything against researchers, and I agree I know a lot less about AI than they do. I do however know humans, and not assuming they’re going to take a chance to get filthy rich by doing something so banal is naive.