What people at SF's largest tech conference are actually worried about (Hint: Not an AI takeover)

I decided to hit the pavement at Salesforce's gigantic Dreamforce conference to ask tech-minded people about AI's catastrophic risk. Turns out, it's not all AI gloom and doom — that's only if you're looking online.

Last week, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon announced he was resigning from the company, saying that AI labs are "gambling with our lives." Debates about an AI-led apocalypse proliferated across the internet, and the leaders of Anthropic and OpenAI posted at length about new safety measures.

Around two-thirds of Americans now think there's at least a moderate chance that AI will destroy humanity, a Politico poll taken this week found.

It can be hard to tell, though. On Tuesday at Dreamforce, I asked some attendees about their so-called "p(doom)," or where they place the probability that AI will cause a major catastrophe. As I navigated a flood of attendees in suits and lanyards, people told me they were worried about AI but not about an apocalypse. Instead, they're concerned about other issues, such as impacts on labor, mental health, and the environment.

Dean Levita, a local tech worker attending the conference, said he was mostly unconcerned about an AI-driven extinction. Being aware about catastrophic risks isn't the same as thinking they're right around the corner, he said, likening earthquake warnings from his lifetime in the Bay Area to the discussion about AI risk.

Henry Sandles and Sara Jamison had come to learn more about Salesforce since they regularly use the software at their nonprofit, which preserves a historic railroad. When I asked about the fears of extinction, Sandles cracked a grin and said, "We've been here before."

He said he trusts that smart people will shut down any AI before it wreaks real-world havoc.

"I just can't see computers being smarter than humans," Sandles told me.

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Jamison said she is far more concerned about the environmental impacts of data centers. She's happy to see AI automating boring work, she said, though she doesn't want to see it used for art.

Ashleigh Kaye — the name she uses with friends, which she shared for fear of retaliation by her employer — is visiting from Oklahoma for the conference. She also raised concerns about data centers, especially regarding electricity prices. She told me she's not worried about any kind of mass extinction from AI. Instead, she thinks it's dangerous to weave the tech into so many applications that could then exert more control over us.

Deep Karia, in town representing his Indian software development company at the conference, told me that his worries for AI cluster around privacy and mental health. He said a disaster stemming from AI is more likely to be because someone grew dependent on the tech and had some kind of psychotic break.