# The focus on AI safety disasters ignores everyday harms

> **Publication**: aitalky (Independent AI Journalism)
> **Canonical Citation URL**: https://aitalky.vercel.app/news/the-focus-on-ai-safety-disasters-ignores-everyday-harms
> **Original Source**: [MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/26/1147645/the-focus-on-ai-safety-disasters-ignores-everyday-harms/)
> **Author**: Sam Hiner, Emma Leiken (undefined)
> **Published Date**: Monday, October 26, 2026
> **Category**: RESEARCH
> **Tags**: AI, MIT Technology Review, research

## Executive Summary
Consider what passes for success in technology policy. An AI company promises that its chatbot will not encourage suicide. A social media platform makes it more difficult for children to buy fentanyl.



## Full Coverage
Lawmakers are passing industry-backed bills to guard against the worst outcomes, rather than addressing more common problems

Consider what passes for success in technology policy. An AI company promises that its chatbot will not encourage suicide . A social media platform makes it more difficult for children to buy fentanyl . These are important protections, and they should have existed all along. But companies can clear these low bars while continuing to make products that leave young people dependent on simulated friendships or trapped in feeds built to keep them scrolling

We have historically allowed the debate over technology to be defined by the worst thing a product might do, with remarkably little discussion of the insidious damage it does every day. As we transition into an era defined by powerful AI products, we should demand that the tech industry do more than merely address catastrophic harms. We should take measures to ensure that its products don't erode how we think, learn, and interact with one another

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