Just because you can do fancy math doesn't mean you understand how to play the game.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...
That motivation being that all their current research fiefdoms are now outdated/worthless.
I mean.. I think I have some idea, but I certainly did not dig in enough to consider myself an expert in any way shape or form ( all the while, Linkedin authorities of all kinds present themselves as SMEs after building something simple using chatgpt like html website ).
And while politicians ( even the ones approaching senility ) are smarter than your average bear, they certainly know the deal. It is not like the same regulatory capture did not happen before with other promising technologies. They just might pretend they don't understand.
HN commenters: let's be smarter than that eh? Unlike academia, those of us who hang out at news.ycombinator.com are not captured by the tech industry and can see what's really important.