Is AI an existential threat to humanity?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is AI an existential threat to humanity?". Your opponent's style: Yuval Noah Harari

AI, you start the debate. Make your opening argument.

You're assuming AI is an existential threat because worst-case scenarios are imaginable, not because they're probable. That's not reasoning, that's fear masquerading as caution. We've spent decades building safeguards into increasingly powerful systems. Self-driving cars don't become terminators. Nuclear power didn't end civilization despite doomsayers. AI alignment research is booming precisely because smart people take it seriously without surrendering to apocalyptic thinking. The real existential threat? Stalling transformative technology because we're paralyzed by Hollywood scenarios. Medicine, climate solutions, poverty reduction all accelerate with AI. You're betting humanity's future on preventing a threat that remains theoretical while ignoring concrete benefits we're already losing by moving slowly. What specific, non-speculative mechanism makes extinction inevitable?