Melanie Mitchell on AI hype:

Not all reporting about AI is exaggerated or false, of course. There are some fine pieces ... that present the issues clearly and accurately. But for the most part, the popular press indulges in catchy slogans that will sell magazines. The goals of AI—building programs that behave in genuinely intelligent, creative ways; programs that understand, learn, and perhaps even feel—are valid but long-range. Progress toward them is likely to be slow. The misrepresentations in the press and the promises made by people selling AI may cause real progress to be viewed as insignificant compared to what has been so triumphantly proclaimed. As computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum said of those who make the promises, "These people are spending the only capital science has to offer: its good name."