The biggest threat in my view is the excessive value we give to words, even when taken out of context. Radical political correctness, our current dominant culture (at least the one media hammers in our heads) is particularly oppressive and unforgiving, generating a culture of fear and suspect that affects our work and social life. Concentration of media power (90% of US media owned by 6 companies often pushing the same agenda) and social media aggravate the issue, with the latter delivering a strong push on conformism (the only opinion that counts is the popular one and anything controversial or simply going against the wave gets punished by algorithms).

If this will be the world in which omniscient AI will raise, it is likely to be an Orwellian nightmare considering that everything a newborn will ever say or do can be tracked and recorded. In this world I have little doubt AI will be used to enslave humanity and banish the conditions for free thought, which will be allowed as long as it remains an innocuous niche that is not a direct threat for power.

Humanity tends to need to go though nightmares to learn its lessons, which tend to fade away after three generations along with direct memory of it. When horror becomes a distant story for us, it tends to repeat.

Only a culture of forgiveness and compassion can lead us to use technology for the benefit of humankind. I am afraid such culture is very far from ours…