Relative to his level of fame, his actual level of contribution as far as pushing forward AI, I’m not so sure about.
I deeply appreciate his educational content and I’m glad that it has led to a way for him to gain influence and sustain a career. Hopefully he’s rich enough from that that he can focus 100% on educational stuff!
Are you sure about your perspective?
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&h...
So, he has made theoretical contributions to the space, contributions to prominent private organizations in the space, and broadly educated others about the space. What more are you looking for?
People just get bored and go do something else for a while sometimes. Or he's got some beef.