[rl3]

Who is to say the data requirements of an AGI won't be massive? Figuring out efficient 50PB sorts might just be a required step.

Even if it isn't, it's unreasonable to expect the world to stop spinning in the interim.

If a superintelligent AGI is born tomorrow, it might just establish itself as a singleton, prohibit other AGIs from exisiting, and then take an indefinite vacation. If that happens, we'll continue to work on seemingly mundane, non-important problems (such as this one) for humanity's foreseeable future.

Don't forget that Google owns DeepMind. If there was a way to divine who's closest to AGI at the present time, the answer would probably be them (even if arrival is ultimately far off).