Exploring expanding expertise: artificial intelligence as an existential threat and the role of prestigious commentators, 2014–2018

The post-2010 technological resurgence in artificial intelligence (AI) was followed by a series of public warnings by prestigious intellectuals, scientists, and entrepreneurs presenting AI as an existential threat. While their expertise in other fields is undeniable, their knowledge of AI remains questionable. With expert studies as a theoretical point of departure, the empirical data collected narrate the events which systematically shaped this view between 2014 and 2018. This chronology captures the interplay between such statements by ‘expanding experts’ in the press and traces their impact on governmental policy documents in the EU, UK, and US, while highlighting the overall absence of experts in these debates. The conclusions recommend the inclusion of AI experts in relevant policymaking schemes and the further exploration of the networks between such prestigious individuals, the purposes and origins of emerging future/risk studies institutions, and their impact on AI R&D in the long run via empirical means.