I think the question everyone has in their minds isn't "when will AGI get here" or even "how soon will it get here" — it's "how soon will AGI get so cheap that everyone will get their hands on it"

that's why everyone's thinking about compute expense. but I guess in terms of a "lifetime expense of a person" even someone who costs $10/hr isn't actually all that cheap, considering what it takes to grow a human into a fully functioning person that's able to just do stuff