Move to general AI will be overnight and I presume faster than we anticipate. Keeping track of current hardware and software developments is the best indicator of when, I'd say ~5 years for some significant paradigm leaps.

As for Covid, another thing to note is the extremely quick and strong response of the Chinese, never mind the source. They had a pretty good idea of repercussions. Not just health, there are major shifts in geopolitics and China is a big part of it.

2ec