A common claim is that concern about [X] ‘distracts’ from concern about [Y]. This is often used as an attack to cause people to discard [X] concerns, on pain of being enemies of [Y] concerns, as attention and effort are presumed to be zero-sum.

There are cases where there is limited focus, especially in political contexts, or where arguments or concerns are interpreted perversely. A central example is when you site [ABCDE] then they’ll find what they consider the weakest one and only consider or attack that, silently discarding the rest entirely. Critics of existential risk do that a lot.

So it does happen. But in general one should assume such claims are false.

Thus, the common claim that AI existential risks ‘distract’ from immediate harms. It turns out Emma Hoes checked, and the claim simply is not true.

The way Emma frames worries about [...]

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