Would I, epistemically speaking, be better off adopting the beliefs hold by all those who have recently voiced their worries about AI risks?
Yes, assuming we're speaking about their actual beliefs, and not whatever mockery you make of them.
If I did that then I would end up believing that I was living in a simulation, in a mathematical universe, and that within my lifetime, thanks to radical life extension, I could hope to rent an apartment on a seastead on the high seas of a terraformed Mars. Or something along these lines.
I understand you've said your occupations have been "road builder, baker and gardener". As long as we're playing the status game, I think I'll trust Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking to have a better epistemic understanding of reality in regards to cosmology or the far possibilities of technology than your average road builder, baker or gardener does.
Yes, assuming we're speaking about their actual beliefs, and not whatever mockery you make of them.
Or alternatively the mockery created by dumping their beliefs down to a level where a reporter can understand them enough to write about them.
"I'm increasingly inclined to thing there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level just to make sure that we don't do something very foolish."
http://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-we-are-summoning-the-demon-with-artificial-intelligence/#ftag=CAD590a51e