I was always puzzled why SIAI hired Ben Goertzel to be its research director, and this article only deepens the mystery.

Ben has a Phd, can program, has written books on the subject and has some credibility. Those kinds of things can help a little if you are trying to get people to give you money in the hope of you building a superintelligent machine. For more see here:

It has similarly been a general rule with the Singularity Institute that, whatever it is we're supposed to do to be more credible, when we actually do it, nothing much changes. "Do you do any sort of code development? I'm not interested in supporting an organization that doesn't develop code" -> OpenCog -> nothing changes. "Eliezer Yudkowsky lacks academic credentials" -> Professor Ben Goertzel installed as Director of Research -> nothing changes. The one thing that actually has seemed to raise credibility, is famous people associating with the organization, like Peter Thiel funding us, or Ray Kurzweil on the Board.