Back in 2007, one of my computer science professors asked the class: „What is good software“? "Reliable!“, "Interesting to build!“, "Financially successful!“. Back then, I was wondering: "Who of us is right?"

More than a decade later, I have learned that these different answers are at the heart of some of the most enduring conflicts in how technology is built and used. I also learned how these conflicts are consistently decided, and why. And sometimes, that scares me.

Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak, and many others have famously raised alarm about AI posing an existential risk to humanity. That sounds dramatic.

However, I believe this whole debate about existential risks to humanity coming from AI is a huge distraction.