> Nuclear weapons are indiscriminate and make everyone worse off if used.

The difference is most people have not experienced any immediate effects of nuclear weapons. But people will experience the immediate effects of AI taking down the electricity grid, for instance.

Right, just like the war to end all wars totally prevented the nations involved from going to war with each other... for a grand total of 20 years before they decided to do it again. There are other more powerful and influential factors that decide the fate of nations. Even if you get your wish and everyone suffers and everyone hates AI then it will simply disappear into classified research projects and government run data centres. The NSA could easily absorb it but I'm guessing government contractors would also want a piece of the pie for weapons research.

If we're at the point where all that matters is scale and reinforcement training then the public facing aspects could entirely disappear and progress would still continue especially when given an infinite budget of taxpayer dollars.

"most people" are in the set of things the trillionaires don't give a shit about. Their market distortion has already made PCs unaffordable and electricity prices rise, among other adverse effects. What else has to happen so you take notice?