Look, I’m Gonna Say It
AI is overhyped. There, I said it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not some Luddite screaming about robots taking jobs or whatever. I’m just saying, let’s not pretend every startup with a neural net is the second coming of Steve Jobs.
I remember back in 2018, at a conference in Austin, this guy Marcus (not his real name, because honestly, who remembers names?) stood up and said, “AI is gonna revolutionize everything!” And I’m sitting there thinking, “Yeah, buddy, you’re selling something.” And look, I get it. We all wanna be part of the next big thing. But honestly, most of these “revolutions” are just fancy ways to sell more ads.
My Friend Dave and the Chatbot Fiasco
So last Tuesday, my friend Dave—he’s a developer, kinda nerdy, loves his coffee—he tells me, “Hey, I built this chatbot. It’s gonna change customer service forever!” I said, “Dave, your chatbot can’t even handle basic questions without sounding like it’s high on codeine.” He said, “It’s just… yeah. It’s a work in progress.” Which… yeah. Fair enough. But that’s my point. We’re so busy chasing the shiny object that we forget to make stuff that actually works.
And don’t even get me started on the whole “AI in healthcare” thing. I mean, sure, it’s cool that algorithms can detect tumors or whatever. But then you have these companies promising to cure cancer with aquisition of some startup’s code. It’s like, “Wow, you guys are curing cancer? That’s amazing! Oh, wait, you’re just selling data to Big Pharma? Never mind.”
The Science Behind the Hype
Now, I’m not saying AI is useless. Far from it. But we need to be real about what it can and can’t do. I was talking to this researcher—let’s call her Dr. Linda—about three months ago. Over coffee at the place on 5th, she told me, “AI is a tool. It’s like a really fancy hammer. You can build a house with it, or you can hit yourself in the thumb. It’s all about how you use it.” And honestly, that’s the most sensible thing I’ve heard about AI in a while.
But here’s the thing: most people don’t wanna hear about sensible. They wanna hear about the next big thing. They wanna hear about how AI is gonna make them rich or save the world or whatever. And that’s why we have this constant cycle of hype and disappointment. It’s like the dot-com boom all over again, but with more neural networks and fewer pet.com jokes.
Where’s the Beef?
So, what’s the solution? I’m not sure, honestly. Maybe we need more people like Dr. Linda, who actually understand the science research news latest science research news latest behind the tech. Maybe we need less hype and more actual, you know, results. I mean, look at self-driving cars. We’ve been promised flying cars since the 1950s, and what do we have? A bunch of Teslas that can’t even handle a rainy day without freaking out.
And don’t even get me started on the whole “AI ethics” debate. It’s like, “Oh no, our AI is biased!” Well, yeah, because humans are biased. Newsflash: if you train an AI on data that’s full of human crap, it’s gonna be full of human crap too. It’s not rocket science.
A Tangent: The Time I Tried to Build an AI
So, about a year ago, I thought, “Hey, why not give this AI thing a shot?” I mean, how hard could it be? I’m a senior editor, not a coder, but I figured I could figure it out. Spoiler alert: I couldn’t. I spent 36 hours trying to get some open-source thing to work, and all I got was a headache and a half-completley broken script. I’m not gonna lie, it was humiliating. But it also made me realize something: AI isn’t magic. It’s hard work. And most of these startups? They’re not doing the hard work. They’re just slapping together some code and calling it a day.
So yeah, that’s my rant. AI is overhyped. It’s not the end-all, be-all. It’s a tool. And like any tool, it’s only as good as the person using it. So let’s calm down with the hype, okay? Let’s focus on making stuff that actually works. Because honestly, we’ve all seen enough chatbots that sound like they’re high on codeine.
About the Author
Sarah Johnson has been a senior magazine editor for over 20 years. She’s written for major publications, covering everything from tech to politics. She lives in New York with her cat, Mr. Whiskers, and spends too much time arguing with people on the internet.
