It seems to me that it is vastly more likely that the first AI will be built by a large company, or as a large government project, than by a group of university researchers, who just don't have the funding for that.

New tech can be built by a big company, or by a newcomer with a good idea. An example of the latter is Google. It's difficult to convince all startups that friendliness is necessary, because the need for friendliness increases time to market. I think we should do the research, and also do outreach to get more smart people on board with friendliness, so they can help with the research.

(I am not currently affiliated with MIRI, but have done some research for them.)