DeepMind looks like a hilariously wrong project to criticize because it is a true moonshot, something very different from the majority of other SV projects.
If hiring hundreds of PhDs to create a general purpose learning agent, all while publishing all the intermediate results in freely available papers isn't a moonshot with socially beneficial outcome, then I don't know what is.
Also note that DeepMind went even further than that, there is DeepMind health division aiming at using this technology to help doctors and patients directly.
If I were the author I'd choose some social media unicorn or an ad network as an example of inherent misallocation of human talent.
If I were the author I'd choose some social media unicorn or an ad network as an example of inherent misallocation of human talent.