I think the author could have picked a better title. “<X> is an engineering problem” is a pretty common expression to describe something where the science is done, but the engineering remains. There’s an understanding that that could still mean a ton of work, but there isn’t some fundamental mystery about the basic natural principles of the thing.

Here, AGI is being described as an engineering problem, in contrast to a “model training” problem. That is, I think at least, he’s at least saying that more work needs to be done at an R&D level. I agree with those who are saying it is maybe not even an engineering problem yet, but should be noted that he’s at least pushing away from just running the existing programs harder, which seems to be the plan with trillions of dollars behind it.