I'm interested in what people think about the proliferation of interest in the "sexy" topic of AI x-risk, which perhaps doesn't have as quantifiable benefits as shorter term, traditional EA concerns, like medicine distribution, extreme poverty and international relations.

I think it can be easy to discount general humanitarian issues as getting-solved-as-a-matter-of-course when we look at the impact of globalisation on the Gini index for instance. But these solutions have come in the context of activism in a positive direction. We can see, from recent international aid withdrawals in the US and UK, that progress is not inevitable and requires vigilance.

To be clear, I think AI safety is a valid concern.