I agree but, as I've understood it, they're explicitly saying they won't release any AGI advances they make. What will it do to their credibility to be funding a "secret" AI project?

I honestly worry that this could kill funding for the organization which doesn't seem optimal in any scenario.

Potential Donor: I've been impressed with your work on AI risk. Now, I hear you're also trying to build an AI yourselves. Who do you have working on your team?

SI: Well, we decided to train high schoolers since we couldn't find any researchers we could trust.

PD: Hm, so what about the project lead?

SI: Well, he's done brilliant work on rationality training and wrote a really fantastic Harry Potter fanfic that helped us recruit the high schoolers.

PD: Huh. So, how has the work gone so far?

SI: That's the best part, we're keeping it all secret so that our advances don't fall into the wrong hands. You wouldn't want that, would you?

PD: [backing away slowly] No, of course not... Well, I need to do a little more reading about your organization, but this sounds, um, good...