I don't like most religions, personally. But there is a significant difference between a regular religious community, that has its own shared beliefs but doesn't completely exclude those who don't share them (e.g. by forbidding members to even become friends with people outside the community), or demand the community members completely dedicate a majority of their time to the religion; and a cult, which does do all of these things.

Note that there exist cults within many major religions. There exist for example extremist Catholic groups that would fit the definition of a cult. But that doesn't mean that all Catholics are a cult.

"AI safety" is not a cult by that definition any more than Christianity or Islam. There's some subgroups that are a bit more cultist, and that's the same in Christianity etc

Same with Falun Dafa, have a friend who is a practitioner, it's completely normal to have friends outside of community (tons of his friends are), no one tries to convert anyone, and between his business and other stuff the time he spends on the practice is really not that much