Stephen Hawking was a genius, no doubt. But he was also a human who lived three times longer than most other humans diagnosed at the same age with the same physical condition, whilst still getting to the top of the very competitive tree of "Human Knowledge", with most of his competitors having no physical handicaps.
So he had to get behind some very big stories, to make the profit he needed to make, to compensate for his physical handicap, I think.
This explains to me the reason he had to express complete certainty about the big bang, which now is getting shakier and shakier, the more is uncovered by JWST.
After we've lost confidence in "Trust me I'm a doctor", and "No worries, we have it all under control", which is the more profitable option; "Brace yourselves, we are all doomed", or "I think we will be OK if we just plug into the sun and monetise it, issuing that money for free to all people, in the same way as plants issue nutrients in response to it"? :)
To me the Ai will be what we make it. If we want it to be for the majority, then the majority should get into it where possible and do everything they/we can to make it ours.
All it is doing is consolidating our joint knowledge, the more of us it gets it's knowledge from, the better for us, I think.
If we are worried about it's creators creating and using it against us for their gain, I think this will backfire on them, if that is their game, they underestimate the influence the majority will have on it, it seems to me.