Excuse me? They have plenty of "clues". Have a look at this for some recent work from the google group:
https://scirate.com/arxiv/2102.06132
Will it lead to quantum computers in the future remains to be seen, but "haven't a clue" is just nonsense.
They meant, if a group of spies were pointing guns at the physicists and engineers and saying "You will build a functional quantum computer within 5 years, or we will pull the trigger," then their life expectancy will be exactly five years.
(I assume the "factoring 15 parlor trick" doesn't count as functional, since you have to punt the number of gates just to get the expected answer.)