[sigmoid10]

There are things you can't do - even as a society - when the costs start ballooning beyond the GDP of smaller European nations. I mean, yes, in an emergency you could cancel all social security and public infrastructure spending and instead dump it into AI. But even then it will take several big nations to foot the bill if you want to still have a country left after you're done. With the level of political heckle everywhere, this is just not going to happen, because it would need unanimous support from all sides.

[DrScientist]

What you are potentially missing is the public sector wouldn't necessarily be in the same race as the commercial companies.

It doesn't matter if a public effort is a year or two behind the curve ( and hence has dramatically lower costs due to Moores law and the ability to piggy back on research ) - especially as we approach the asymptotic phase of development.