It is important to me because the search for truth has been limited by this process that says we must rely upon outdated theories of others. This process limits creative thought and tells us how to view the world. It is nothing less than boundaries upon subjective experience of the world. People should question this because it limits the perception of truth.
AI engineers might be doing what engineers do, working in a reductionist way on a discrete part of a problem with the ethical contexts left to someone else. The commercial drive to develop better and better AI should make us all nervous unless we have absolute transparency, ‘commercial-in-confidence’ is not helpful here.