If this take is correct, then I think it would be very surprising if AI risk happened to be the only intellectual argument that managed to ever have that effect. Rather, there are lots of arguments of the form “X is the most important thing in the world and why you should sacrifice everything on the altar of X”, with various cults being created around different versions of it.
For example, Scientology used to advertise itself as a way to prevent a nuclear war, or at least to survive if it happens anyway.
So if you believed that the nuclear war was a serious risk, then by the same logic it made perfect sense to volunteer for sleep deprivation and all kinds of abuse, even if from outside view the entire organization had 0 impact on the probability of nuclear war.
For example, Scientology used to advertise itself as a way to prevent a nuclear war, or at least to survive if it happens anyway.
So if you believed that the nuclear war was a serious risk, then by the same logic it made perfect sense to volunteer for sleep deprivation and all kinds of abuse, even if from outside view the entire organization had 0 impact on the probability of nuclear war.