Yes, people worried about AI started the Berkeley rationality movement (or whatever you want to call it) in the hope that it would help people become rational enough to understand the argument that AI is a very potent danger.
Some people who fit the description above are Eliezer Yudkowsky and Anna Salamon.
Eliezer started writing a sequence of blog posts that formed the nucleus of the movement in Nov 2006 (a month after the start of Hacker News).
Anna started working full time on AI safety in Mar 2008 and a few years later became the executive director of a non-profit whose mission was to try to help people become more rational. (The main way of its doing so has been in-person workshops IIUC.)
Some people who fit the description above are Eliezer Yudkowsky and Anna Salamon.
Eliezer started writing a sequence of blog posts that formed the nucleus of the movement in Nov 2006 (a month after the start of Hacker News).
Anna started working full time on AI safety in Mar 2008 and a few years later became the executive director of a non-profit whose mission was to try to help people become more rational. (The main way of its doing so has been in-person workshops IIUC.)