I have a theory about why there is disagreement with the AAAI panel:

The DOOM peddlers gather funding from hapless innocents - who hope to SAVE THE WORLD - while the academics see them as bringing their field into disrepute, by unjustifiably linking their field to existential risk, with their irresponsible scaremongering about THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

Naturally, the academics sense a threat to their funding - and so write papers to reassure the public that spending money on this stuff is Really Not As Bad As All That.