They allegedly believe the technology itself is a nuclear weapon tier threat or greater, so why does it matter which lab they are trying to achieve it at?

I’m really glad us achieved nuclear weapon before nazi germany.

Then the USSR got it anyway and we're in a perpetual state of Mutually Assured Destruction.

A perpetual state of mutually assured destruction is much better for the world than only the US possessing the bomb.

They're trying to make it not be a threat, and are all scared and afraid that their best efforts to make it harmless are not enough.

Some are worried by the AI directly bringing doom; others are worried that one of the companies who control the AI will become a dictator; still more think becoming a dictator is a necessary step to safely prevent anyone else making unsafe AI.

Painting them all under one brush is like dismissing all animal welfare causes in general, because you disagree with specifically Jainists about a policy of non-violence towards all living creatures being relevant to how you reincarnate: the one is way too specific for the general.

> No you see, actually I’m the guy that makes sure that only the Palantir and Mossad get the model that can discover iOS 0 days. I’m standing between us and ruin. Ted over there across the open office, he’s the one actually manufacturing the weapon. You’re thinking of him

You're not even close to passing the ideological Turing test here.

Ok, so they're uniquely careful, and they also get to that threshold first (whatever it is).

What happens when everyone else (who is not so careful) gets to the same threshold three months later? How does them getting there first stop that happening?

It's an utterly self-serving argument and it's not even internally consistent.

Obviously you have to turn your WMD against them to prevent this, for the good of everyone, because you're such a good guy.