The motivation is doing research to better understand AI? People's time and attention is not fungible—especially in inherently creative pursuits like research—

The motivation is doing research to better understand AI? People's time and attention is not fungible—especially in inherently creative pursuits like research—and the mindset in your comment is exactly the sort of superficial administrative reasoning that leads to hype bubbles unconstrained by reality. "Why are you wasting your time trying to understand what we're doing instead of rushing ahead without thinking" is absolutely something I've heard from managers and executives, albeit phrased more politically, and it never ends well in a holistic accounting.