A striking finding is that the area where people expect the greatest positive impact from AI is biosecurity and pandemic prevention
It seems like this might simply be explained by “biosecurity and pandemic prevention” containing two very different things: ‘novel biosecurity risks’ (of the kind EAs are concerned about) and ‘helping with the next covid-19’ (likely more salient to the general public and potentially involving broader healthcare improvements, which AI was also predicted to improve to a similar extent).
Perhaps relatedly, biosecurity and pandemic prevention was rated as the least a problem today (below everything other than AI itself).
It seems like this might simply be explained by “biosecurity and pandemic prevention” containing two very different things: ‘novel biosecurity risks’ (of the kind EAs are concerned about) and ‘helping with the next covid-19’ (likely more salient to the general public and potentially involving broader healthcare improvements, which AI was also predicted to improve to a similar extent).
Perhaps relatedly, biosecurity and pandemic prevention was rated as the least a problem today (below everything other than AI itself).