It doesn't particularly matter how journalists spin this stuff, as they clearly don't understand it anyway.
It matters because it could lead to another AI winter when the hype falls through.
It matters because it could lead to another AI winter when the hype falls through.
Once the difficulty of those problems started to be understood, of course funding dried up. Industry is focused on short-term ROI, so it's hard to get funding if the profits won't be seen for 50 years.
The difference is that now there's an entire string of profitable markets for solving near-term AI problems. AI is fundamental to the business models of some of the world's largest companies (i.e. Google). There's basically zero risk of an AI winter when we're on the verge of advanced robotics, Watson-style Q&A systems, self-driving cars, large-scale genomics, etc.
An AGI winter is another story, but most AI work isn't really focused on serious, full-scale AGI right now anyway. That winter never ended and is ongoing. Everyone is focused on incremental AI improvements because no one really knows what's required for full AGI, and are in the meantime hoping they'll hit on it while building on known techniques like deep learning, comp neurosci, etc.
tl;dr: As long as investors continue to see marketable products for new AI developments anywhere in the next ~10 years, funding won't dry up again.
As someone who experienced AI winter (and ended up leaving the field) and even attended the AAAI panel where the term was coined on stage, I am not so confident.
What happened then looks like it could happen again. At that time there were tons of expert systems being deployed with high promises that they would revolutionize business and practical problem solving. Non-technical people from other fields were flooding in to sell "solutions." Dedicated workstations were proliferating.
The self-driving car hype is already at the same level as the expert systems hype was back then.
> tl;dr: As long as investors continue to see marketable products for new AI developments anywhere in the next ~10 years, funding won't dry up again.
Well sure, that's true, but no different from saying "as long as house prices continue to go up there will be a housing boom."
Reminds me of this XKCD: http://xkcd.com/1425/
It is happening again, "Dear Aunt, Let's Set So Double The Killer Delete Select All", Honda selling lane following and adaptive cruise control labeled as self driving (so does tesla btw), etc. There are plenty of scam products and misleading marketing surrounding AI right now.