There is also a growing cadre of these people who, I think, truly and deeply believe Peter Thiel's hype about making a godlike super AI. Silicon Valley has been due for a religious awakening for years, and a techno-god that you can, theoretically, entreat with personally from the safety of your browser window? It's tailor-made. At the very least, I feel like a lot of them have fallen into Pascal's Wager about the whole thing, and that's enough for them to devote time and energy and the limitless money they can beg or borrow to this.