My comment and the article are about AI research specifically, where there is lots of exciting new research due to the success of deep learning. And since the a

My comment and the article are about AI research specifically, where there is lots of exciting new research due to the success of deep learning. And since the area is new, there is lot of low hanging fruit and challenging problems, which researchers are eager to solve and publish, and as a result Apple is suffering. So it does not matter how Google research worked earlier or if other areas of Google research continue to wait for a 5 year timer.