CEOs know (or don't care) that they won't reach superintelligence. The reason they are where they are is that they are good at saying what they need to get the next round of funding.
CEOs know that superintelligence is the only way their unbelievable investments will pay off, and they probably also know that they won't (if they don't know, they certainly don't care). But what's important is convincing investors that a mature industry (IT) is still in an exponential growth period, and they are absolutely willing to hype anything that can do this, up until the point it can't. Thus blockchain and all its applications, now generative AI.
Yes. As well as other hype-men and useful idiots. People are extremely naive when it comes to vested interest talking points. There’s a very natural reason why these guys want to keep talking about AGI and ASI: ”soon” is the magic word that makes investors feel fomo and make rash decisions.
During peak crypto madness vagueposting was an extremely effective market manipulation tool. I know people who made a lot of money on unconfirmed rumors in hours but of course it was just zero-sum gambling - the ”early adopters” made their money at the expense of the latecomers. No value was generated.
People don’t even need to be convinced that AGI/ASI is near, just ”but what if there’s a chance?”. It’s similar psychological tricks as selling lottery tickets.
