@mcc It's not that #AI isn't real, but people are rather unaware of what "artifical intelligence" is. AI is a term that is and has always been a branding, a label used for marketing. It's nothing more that a bunch of several branches of computer science that are about solving problems with computers for which humans need intelligence. The idea of a hypothetical Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), an artificial mind that is as intelligent as a human or even superintelligent, has been around for as long as programmable universal computers, but it is basically just a myth, just a prophecy; a bunch of AI researchers from different branches of the AI research tree have been dreaming of the homunculus growing from their respective branch any time soon. For the last 15 years or so, it has been the #DeepLearning branch; a long time ago when I was little, it was the #ExpertSystem branch. Evolutionary algorithms might get back into the spotlight next, since machine learning is running out of steam, using bigger and bigger models and datasets for diminishing returns won't go on for very much longer. Basically, there are those who want to build an abstract model of a mind based upon philosophical theories of what intelligence might be, then there are those who want to model something resembling a brain with simple linear algebra, basically building huge billion-dimensional tensors and labelling them "artificial neural networks", and then there are the people who think you need a body and an environment with which you interact in order to become intelligent, and that the best way to become intelligent is some sort of artificial life that evolves. They are the ones who let algorithms "mutate" and then select those mutations that work better than the original one. They are the ones who build tiny robots and help them "evolve".

Well, with our current machine learning models and hardware, we won't get very much closer to anything like the human brain because an artificial neural network of that capacity would need a ludicrous amount of power and resources, we wouldn't be able to run any other software on any computer whatsoever on this planet because they all would be running a single instance of that artificial intelligence, and it still wouldn't be enough by several orders of magnitude. We would need all the power plants on this planet a thousand times over to do what a single human brain does powered by a piece of chocolate cake and a cup of tea. Unless there is some significant breakthrough very soon, an artificial neural network that rivals a human brain isn't going to happen anytime soon. Besides, I'm with the artificial life people, I don't believe a mind in a box is even possible, you need agency in the real world in order to become intelligent.