I think you're issue with the language is not shared by most people. In research we rarely know beforehand what research is on the right or wrong path. But we are comfortable with someone saying they are researching something even if they don't know beforehand whether the research will be useful or a wild goose chase. For example most people's first though to hearing "I'm researching ways to treat Alzheimer's" isn't "Only if it passes phase 3 trials!".
Yeah, in this release they're not saying they're doing research towards AI, or even that they're researching AI. They're saying that they're "building artificial general intelligence" and developing a platform that "will scale to AGI." (emphasis mine) They're also calling what they're actually building "pre-AGI."
> We’re partnering to develop a hardware and software platform within Microsoft Azure which will scale to AGI.
This sentence might by itself imply they are farther along than they are, but in the context of the whole article I never got the impression they were close to actually building an AGI.
> The most obvious way to cover costs is to build a product, but that would mean changing our focus. Instead, we intend to license some of our pre-AGI technologies, with Microsoft becoming our preferred partner for commercializing them.
This read pretty straightforwardly to me. Pre-AGI seems like a shorthand for useful technologies like GPT-2.
Reading the article I never got the impression they'd solved AGI, or were even close. The context of the article is a partnership announcement not a breakthrough. I could see how a few people who are very unsophisticated might get a little confused as to how far along they are. But I assumed they were writing for people who had heard of OpenAI which pretty much eliminates anyone this unsophisticated.
They don't know what connection, if any, what they're doing has with AGI. For all we know right now, some botanist researching the reproductive system of ferns is as likely to bring about a breakthrough in AI as their research is. To me this feels like peak-Silicon Valley, the moment they've completely lost touch with reality.
People may also not be confused if Ben and Jerry's start an ice cream ad with mentions of AGI and the change of human trajectory and Marie Curie, and name it Pre-AGI Rum Raisin, but that doesn't mean the text isn't a beautiful and amusing example of contemporary Silicon Valley self-importance and delusion, and reads like a parody that makes the characters in HBO's Silicon Valley sound grounded and humble. Especially the "pre-AGI" bit, which I'm now stealing and will be using at every opportunity. Maybe it's just me, but I think it is quite hilarious when a company whose actual connection with AGI is that, like many others, they dream about it and wish they could one day invent it, call their work "pre-AGI." Ironic, considering they're writing this pre-apocalypse.
Although, perhaps you would agree that someone saying "my work on Alzheimer's might help your friend" would be behaving in a cruel and unprofessional way unless the treatment was indeed in human trials?
