Why do you expect people will be trying to build a general_ai.exe? Vertical applications of machine learning and light-AI are what most private comapnies that are getting traction are doing today, while big-cos and universities (and things like OpenAI!) are funding the research that could lead to more generalizable AI.

People certainly talk about general_ai.exe.

Often I imagine I had a technology such as general artificial intelligence or world-class NLP. Perhaps I lack imagination, but I have not yet thought of an exciting application. These are tools, much like Perl scripts, and it is not clear to me which will displace more jobs during my life.

Not serious people in any near-term way. Even bullish AI folks think general AI is MINIMUM of 10, more likely 50-100 years away.

You would never give away general_ai.exe at most you would rent it as a service. If its capabilities were linear with computing power you would just have it exponentially fund its own capabilities. Start by having it operate as a poker bot, run mechanical turk, do data analysis, imitate a software development contracting business. Then as capital accumulates add more capacity. Even if general_ai.exe doesn't get smarter than a human but can just perform more operations its probably the biggest opportunity ever.

Turn it on and ask it your question?

But seriously, narrower forms of AI are useful for things like self-driving cars.

In this thread, I have posed the question to general (biological) intelligence, since I do not have access to general artificial intelligence.