I would like to suggest, as a hypothetical, that well funded companies (you know who) are promoting this AI "danger" as a way to cajole federal legislation to come out they can "help with".

It is the fear of every U.S. company to have to deal with 50 different state's legislation (see guns, porn, abortion, alcohol, gambling, prostitution, etc. that all vary state by state) because it's more expensive to have to bend to every little state's ideas of how to protect their citizens.

They want a single point at which they can lobby (and lobby hard with lots of money) to get the lax, self-dealing laws with lots of legal protection they so desperately know will provide them with super-profits.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe Skynet is just around the corner.