Any “huge R&D center” constraint is trivialized in a future where agile, powerful robots will be ubiquitous and an AGI can use robots to create an underground lab in the middle of nowhere, using its superintelligence to be undetectable in all ways that are physically possible. An AGI will also be able to use robots and 3D printers to fabricate purpose-built machines that enable it to conduct billions of physical experiments a day. Sure, it would be harder to construct something like a massive particle accelerator, but 1) that isn’t needed to make killer nanobots 2) even that isn’t impossible for a sufficiently intelligent machine to create covertly and quickly.
Any “huge R&D center” constraint is trivialized in a future where agile, powerful robots will be ubiquitous and an AGI can use robots to create an underground lab in the middle of nowhere, using its superintelligence to be undetectable in all ways that are physically possible. An AGI will also be able to use robots and 3D printers to fabricate purpose-built machines that enable it to conduct billions of physical experiments a day. Sure, it would be harder to construct something like a massive particle accelerator, but 1) that isn’t needed to make killer nanobots 2) even that isn’t impossible for a sufficiently intelligent machine to create covertly and quickly.