Most people are not ML researchers. Most of the AI industry is not AI researchers. Most of the AI spending is not going to AI researchers. AI researchers came

Most people are not ML researchers. Most of the AI industry is not AI researchers. Most of the AI spending is not going to AI researchers. AI researchers came up with an architectural improvement that made a lot of previously impossible stuff barely possible. Then, industry ran with it. Scaling that particular trick to the limits by throwing as much raw compute and data at it as humanly possible. You don't need to be an AI expert to know that there are probably more advances to be had and that funding foundational research is the way to get them.