The most pressing danger from AI isn't a hypothetical superintelligence but its use as a tool for societal control. The immediate risk is an Orwellian future where AI censors information, rewrites history for political agendas, and enables mass surveillance—a threat far more tangible than science fiction scenarios.

Even if AI is a perfect success with no catastrophic risk, our society may still crumble. We lack the political cohesion and shared values to agree on fundamental solutions like Universal Basic Income (UBI) that would be necessary to manage mass unemployment, turning a technological miracle into a geopolitical crisis.

Beyond economic disruption, AI's most immediate danger is social. By providing synthetic relationships and on-demand companionship, AI companies have an economic incentive to evolve an “asocial species of young male.” This could lead to a generation sequestered from society, unwilling to engage in the effort of real-world relationships.

The discourse around AI risk has matured beyond sci-fi scenarios like Terminator. The focus is now on immediate, real-world problems such as AI-induced psychosis, the impact of AI romantic companions on birth rates, and the spread of misinformation, requiring a different approach from builders and policymakers.

The rapid displacement of jobs by AI will cause suffering beyond finances. It will trigger a profound crisis of meaning and identity for millions whose sense of self is tied to their profession, creating emotional distress and potential societal unrest.

The most immediate danger from AI is not a hypothetical superintelligence but the growing delta between AI's capabilities and the public's understanding of how it works. This knowledge gap allows for subtle, widespread behavioral manipulation, a more insidious threat than a single rogue AGI.

AI experts like Eric Schmidt and Henry Kissinger predict AI will split society into two tiers: a small elite who develops AI and a large class that becomes dependent on it for decisions. This reliance will lead to "cognitive diminishment," where critical thinking skills atrophy, much like losing mental math abilities by overusing a calculator.

The most dangerous long-term impact of AI is not economic unemployment, but the stripping away of human meaning and purpose. As AI masters every valuable skill, it will disrupt the core human algorithm of contributing to the group, leading to a collective psychological crisis and societal decay.

The real danger of AI is not a machine uprising, but that we will "entertain ourselves to death." We will willingly cede our power and agency to hyper-engaging digital media, pursuing pleasure to the point of anhedonia—the inability to feel joy at all.