I'll believe they are doing something useful the day they setup a Burger shack opposite a McDonalds and outcompete on inventory or queuing or something practical. Nobody in industry cares about Rubik's cubes and Go.
I think you are underestimating the power of such progress. Look around all the objects you have from iPhone to laptops to pencil sharpener. They were made in some factory and very likely human hands played some role there. Now imagine you can throw in $100 human hands which can operate as dexterously as human from cameras just like human without taking rest or vacations or requiring medical insurance. What you think will be the impact of this? People call it Industrial Revolution 4.0. It will change world beyond billions or trillions of dollars. The investment in places like OpenAI is bargain of lifetime.
Yes, the industry does not care about Rubik's cube and Go. The industry, however, would not exist in the first place if not preceded by researchers on equivalent endevours that would make zero monetary sense on first look. Markets are created by those that can envision one with the given technology. No matter how incredulous the technology might look like.
