I think it is a mistake to only focus on the concerns of the researchers and scientists. If you use the atom bomb as an example, the concerns a sociology professor or philosopher had for the bomb might be different than then concerns of a nuclear physcicst, but both were worth paying attention to.
The atom bomb was a giant explosion made for killing people. The logical extrapolation is bigger explosions and more death. Doesn't take a lot of smarts to see that.
The current state of AI is some clever algorithms to solve very specific problems. What is being extrapolated from that is everyone losing their job and/or being enslaved by computers. This is the point the author is trying to make. It's basically a form of hysteria.
