# The politics and possibilities of AI could kill us all

> This essay from the Blood in the Machine newsletter pushes back hard on AI doom talk, but not from the usual direction. The author's argument is that fixating on speculative extinction scenarios is actually counterproductive, because what the technology is already doing is bad enough without inventing science-fiction endings. The twist is a grudging acknowledgment that the doom narrative has political uses. Fear of a runaway superintelligence can galvanize opposition to big tech in a way that dry complaints about surveillance or labor displacement rarely do. The worry is that this framing misdirects attention toward imaginary risks and away from the concrete harms happening now, from worker displacement to the concentration of power in a few companies. It is a bracing, contrarian read in a week dominated by lab leaders warning about the frontier. The piece asks a genuinely useful question, whether the loudest AI fears serve the public or mostly serve the industry that profits from being seen as world-alteringly powerful. You need not agree with all of it to find the challenge worth sitting with.

_Section: [Interesting AI Articles](https://www.wortins.com/articles) · Source: Blood in the Machine · Published Sunday, September 13, 2026_

## Wortins' read

This essay from the Blood in the Machine newsletter pushes back hard on AI doom talk, but not from the usual direction. The author's argument is that fixating on speculative extinction scenarios is actually counterproductive, because what the technology is already doing is bad enough without inventing science-fiction endings. The twist is a grudging acknowledgment that the doom narrative has political uses. Fear of a runaway superintelligence can galvanize opposition to big tech in a way that dry complaints about surveillance or labor displacement rarely do. The worry is that this framing misdirects attention toward imaginary risks and away from the concrete harms happening now, from worker displacement to the concentration of power in a few companies. It is a bracing, contrarian read in a week dominated by lab leaders warning about the frontier. The piece asks a genuinely useful question, whether the loudest AI fears serve the public or mostly serve the industry that profits from being seen as world-alteringly powerful. You need not agree with all of it to find the challenge worth sitting with.

## Source

[Read the full story at Blood in the Machine](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-politics-and-possibilities-of)

## Related coverage

- [AI will transform capitalism, but how?](https://www.wortins.com/story/ai-will-transform-capitalism-but-how-38a5a4af) — [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/13/ai-will-transform-capitalism-but-how)
- [Trump and Mike Johnson think the AI industry is overreacting](https://www.wortins.com/story/trump-and-mike-johnson-think-the-ai-industry-is-overreacting-17f63969) — [The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/994441/trump-mike-johnson-ai-industry-overreacting)
- [Two-year university study finds banning AI from classrooms leaves students worse off](https://www.wortins.com/story/two-year-university-study-finds-banning-ai-from-classrooms-l-b0c61334) — [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com/two-year-university-study-finds-banning-ai-from-classrooms-leaves-students-worse-off/)
- [Xi pitches open-source AI to BRICS as Beijing weighs curbs on its own models](https://www.wortins.com/story/xi-pitches-open-source-ai-to-brics-as-beijing-weighs-curbs-o-a351b937) — [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/xi-brics-open-source-ai-eu)
- [Delhi High Court bars misuse of AI deepfakes infringing Rajat Sharma's personality rights](https://www.wortins.com/story/delhi-high-court-bars-misuse-of-ai-deepfakes-infringing-raja-ecc55286) — [Bar and Bench](https://www.barandbench.com/news/delhi-high-court-bars-misuse-of-ai-deepfakes-infringing-rajat-sharmas-personality-rights)
- [Q&A with AI researchers John Schulman, Beren Millidge, and Charlie O'Neill on steelmanning the case against RSI, Chinese labs' progress, long-horizon RL, more (Dwarkesh Patel/Dwarkesh Podcast)](https://www.wortins.com/story/q-a-with-ai-researchers-john-schulman-beren-millidge-and-cha-3e32d1c1) — [Dwarkesh Podcast](https://www.techmeme.com/260912/p3#a260912p3)

---

_Curated and written by [Wortins](https://www.wortins.com) — The daily AI briefing. Every story links to its original source; the "Wortins read" on each is our own original analysis. [About Wortins & our editorial approach](https://www.wortins.com/about)._