A mere six months ago today, OpenAI released ChatGPT.

Since then, it’s been a dizzying AI ride: The “interactive, conversational model” became the talk of the AI community within days and a global cultural phenomenon within weeks. In a new, unsettling twist, ChatGPT’s massive popularity can also be tied directly to today’s mainstream media headlines like “AI Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn,” as leaders from top AI labs like OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic warned in a 22-word statement that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”