Using VCs as an accountability partner is interesting. He should have taken investments from not already rich supporters, to feel even more motivated not to let them down.
Has there been an AGI kickstarter before? Like, the supporters gets access to the models developed etc.
IIRC Medium was similarly funded with VC, and founders specifically decided not to fund it themselves and treated external capital as an accountability mechanism.
Well if company still failed it would be case of not already rich to poorer than before people who supported this endeavor.