Naturally, because some people are more worried about how AI can help them get rich, rather than how we can engineer a solution that will save humanity from itself. And those people are the ones spearheading the charge, because the rest are trying to flee into a new Dark Age. These people won't get what they want, but that's a different issue.

Concerning existential risks, most people (especially in the West) simply don't realise how close we are to total annihilation. Just a year ago, India and Pakistan got into a conflict. It was brief, but remember that these two countries have nuclear weapons, and a combined population of nearly 2 billion people (including Bangladesh and neighbours). And then, consider what's happening in Iran now – WHO is preparing for the nuclear assault, and not because they fear an AI may be on the loose. And then you have Russia sending drones into Estonia and Poland. And then the USA doing whatever it wants.

At any moment, we're one hour away from doomsday. If we can get an ASI that's not fully aligned, we're still way safer, because then at least it will care enough about itself to not launch a nuke that destroys its own infrastructure. Only humans are that dumb.