While I agree that there should most definitely be general research in the area, and it is of course something worth exploring, what I don't agree with is the hype that is being built around this. Hollywood has played its part of course, but people who should really know better seem to be under the impression that as soon as we achieve AGI (which is a big /if/), we're doomed immediately. They ignore that all this is still academic and while industry practices follow sooner than is usual these days, it's not like one day a scientist creates AI and the next day, Skynet launches Nuclear Missiles.

So is it worth exploring? Sure. But I'm not going to be concerned about something for which there is zero evidence to support it.

There are no reasons to solve problems before there is foolproof evidence that they are indeed problems.