AI panic is a marketing strategy

They are directly selling AI-based products and services. They release or boost sensational stories about those capabilities through their various channels of media influence so they can make their products seem more powerful and useful than they really are. The sensationalisation widens the window on what seems possible even if it's nowhere near the reality. Even people who don't buy into those notions about society-destroying automation or humanity-threatening emergence are more likely to buy into stuff that seems tamer but still lacks any substantial proof of viability like AI driving or AI written movie scripts.