I'm not saying this will happen, but it seems to me like an incredibly silly move.
They may be geniuses, but AGI is an idea whose time has come: geniuses are no longer required to get us there.
The Singularity train has already left the station.
Inevitability.
Now humanity is just waiting for it to arrive at our stop
I think AGI is going to arrive via a different technology, many years in the future still.
LLMs will get to the point where they appear to be AGI, but only in the same way the latest 3D rendering technology can create images that appear to be real.
I think the path to AGI is: embodiment. Give it a body, let it explore a world, fight to survive, learn action and consequence. Then AGI you will have.
There is no reason embodiment for AGI should need to be physical or mammalian-like in any way.
Plenty of very intelligent people are completely paralyzed. Sensations of physical embodiment is highly overrated and is surely not necessary for intelligence.