Experts are surely doing everything possible to ensure the best outcome, right?

The Atlantic runs an article on the danger of the singularity, citing a previous article by Hawking, Tegmark, Wilczek, and Russel. Excerpt:

"Experts are surely doing everything possible to ensure the best outcome, right?" they go on. "Wrong. If a superior alien civilization sent us a message saying, ‘We'll arrive in a few decades,’ would we just reply, ‘Okay, call us when you get here–we'll leave the lights on?' Probably not. But this is more or less what is happening with A.I."

More or less? Why would the aliens need our lights? If they told us they’re coming, they’re probably friendly, right? Right, you guys? And then the op-ed ends with a plug for the organizations that these scientists founded: “Little serious research is devoted to these issues outside non-profit institutes such as the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the Future of Humanity Institute, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the Future of Life Institute.”