I wasn't suggesting that Hinton or anyone else should go to Bell Labs or PARC these days. I was just pointing out that back in the day, nobody would have been disappointed or considered it selling out for a notable figure to leave academia for one of those corporate research centers. For all that Google may aspire to have that kind of reputation for research, they don't have it, yet. So some doubting is allowable. However, I can't think of any other for-profit employer that seems to be as willing and able as Google to build that kind of legacy.