p.s. I don't think papers qualify as a "demo". I'm with you re: not running it like an academic lab and chasing a minimal publishable unit or fashions of the time. Demo = Demonstrably do something with your technology no one could do before, ie beat people at Go in DeepMinds case, in your case you could set up your own benchmark / pass a Turing test for 3 year olds or something.
p.s. I don't think papers qualify as a "demo". I'm with you re: not running it like an academic lab and chasing a minimal publishable unit or fashions of the time. Demo = Demonstrably do something with your technology no one could do before, ie beat people at Go in DeepMinds case, in your case you could set up your own benchmark / pass a Turing test for 3 year olds or something.