As just a guess, it’s because they believe that AGI is impossible or is at least very distant in the future - but that is wrong, of course. So, I guess they assume that money is better spent elsewhere at present. It may also be because the PTB, haven’t considered the consequences to their logical extreme - the extinction of humanity and its future potential. There has basically been a subtle underlying “AI winter” since the first series of unfulfilled promises and unrealistic expectations. I suppose it’s not totally fair to blame the gov and buisnesses for their skepticism - it’s simply very dangerous excessive skepticism. We need to make it apparent to them that AGI is monumentally important - right now.

People in government only benefit from short term ideas, and while they might be happy to listen to the potentials and the dangers of AI, their “vision Horizon” is still less than the curvature of the earth—-not around it.

Their time horizons are limited to the time horizon of elections.

Of course, looked at objectively,and considering the rate of change of technology, the opportunity cost of not looking long term in this case is huge.