The tech world is selling you an AI apocalypse or an AI assistant. Just don't forget it's selling you something.

Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser/BI Half the tech world can't stop ringing the alarm on the risk AI poses.

The other half can't stop talking about giving AI agents the keys to their personal lives.

They sound like they're on opposite ends of the spectrum, but both sides share a common thread.

AI might kill me, but first it's going to get me a hell of a deal on a new insurance policy .

That's been the vibe in the tech world over the past few weeks.

Two very different opinions about the future of AI.

In one corner are the doomers.

Earlier this month, an Anthropic researcher's resignation and stark warning — that AI labs are " gambling with our lives " — kicked off a news cycle about whether AI could lead to the end of humanity .

Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and xAI's Elon Musk eventually agreed that coordinating a slowdown of AI development would be in everyone's best interest.

But just as we all were pricing out our AI bunkers , along came the AI boomers.

People can't stop praising the personal AI assistants they're using, most notably Instinct and Meta's Muse .

Suddenly, AI wasn't so concerning if it could get you a good deal on a Halloween costume.

Seeing two theories — AI will destroy us; AI will empower us — arise in quick succession seems odd.

But it's important to understand that the messages are coming from different camps with different motivations.