I don't think we need to have the "can AI really think* debate for the millionth time, anyhow it's safe to say that we have progressed towards the goal far enough that Hinton thinks it's a problem.

>So one reason he might lament the status quo is because it has people thinking we have achieved AI when we haven't.

I don't think the article allows us to infer this at all.

>But also, it wasn't apparent until recently that even if the tech did work as promised, it will be an awful thing because humans will use it to bad ends. I don't think it's particularly blame-worthy that he didn't foresee that 50 years ago.

No, really, that would be extremely naive, we can expect better from scientists.