I agree that those companies are worth distinguishing. I just think calling them “labs” is a confusing way to do so. If the purpose was only to distinguish them from other AI companies, you could call them “AI bananas” and it would be just as useful. But “AI bananas” is unhelpful and confusing. I think “AI labs” is the same (to a lesser but still important degree).
Unfortunately there’s momentum behind the term “AI lab” in a way that is not true for “AI bananas”. Also, it is unambiguously true that a major part of what these companies do is scientific experimentation, as one would expect in a laboratory—this makes the analogy to “AI bananas” imperfect.
I agree that those companies are worth distinguishing. I just think calling them “labs” is a confusing way to do so. If the purpose was only to distinguish them from other AI companies, you could call them “AI bananas” and it would be just as useful. But “AI bananas” is unhelpful and confusing. I think “AI labs” is the same (to a lesser but still important degree).
Unfortunately there’s momentum behind the term “AI lab” in a way that is not true for “AI bananas”. Also, it is unambiguously true that a major part of what these companies do is scientific experimentation, as one would expect in a laboratory—this makes the analogy to “AI bananas” imperfect.