Comment by crazygringo

Commercially driven R&D labs have been around for a long time. Much of research and development has never followed the "scientific method". There's nothing wrong with calling the current set of AI companies "labs" when referring to their research efforts. And their researchers are putting out plenty of academic papers, sharing plenty of research results, so it's not like there's any level of rigor that is lacking.

I don't know why you're trying to suggest some kind of restriction on the word "lab", or based on what. Calling them "labs" is perfectly normal, conventional, and justified terminology.