That's fair: the statement isn't hyperbolic in its language. But remember that GPT-2 was barely coherent. In making this statement, I would argue that OpenAI was trying to impart a sense of awe and danger designed to attract the kind of attention that it did. I would argue that they have repeatedly invoked danger to impart a sense of momentousness to their products. (And to further what is now a pretty transparent effort to monopolize the tech through regulatory intervention.)