Serverless in this context means a simple stateless function connected to an API endpoint without having to setup your own server for the function to be connected to. I agree that the 'serverless' name can be confusing as ultimately it still uses a server, it's just abstracted away. Perhaps 'stateless API endpoint function' is a better name, but that doesn't roll off the tongue very well...

Sometimes you just have to limit the cynicism and accept that some terms are popular regardless of their literal accuracy or vagueness. Look at how the people who hated on "cloud" are perceived today. Shockingly some of them are still doing it. When those people were saying the cloud was someone else's hardware or servers they weren't really saying anything at all. I'm sure there's anecdotes about clueless PMs to prove the exception but no one actually thinks it's magic pixie dust underneath it all. They just don't talk about it because generally they don't need to think about it.

And as much as it pains the cynic in me to say it, just because something is a marketing term doesn't mean it's bad. Even without a strict definition a single word that replaces several words, sentences or paragraphs is really useful for communication even if it makes it less approachable to people that are new to it. Could you imagine going to "function that runs on demand on someone else's server Conf 2016"? Or how unwieldy discussions during it would be? And yeah, there's probably a better single word out there for it but that's an uphill battle I'm glad I'm not fighting.

Yeah man, people should say what they mean. Like, I bought a new wireless phone the other day, and when I cracked it open, there were a bunch of wires inside! WTF?

Yeah this new marketing speak is really confusing sometimes. :/