I've been having an ongoing argument the past month with with a 70-something step relative I see often who has always come to me for computer advice about this exact thing. I've tried to let it go many times, but she keeps hammering at it, even bringing it up out of the blue. Since you mentioned something similar, forgive me for popping in with my own rant here, but it has been really getting on my nerves.

She absolutely will not hear it that "AI" does not mean it is actually intelligent but rather a marketing scam and that it has zero chance of developing general intelligence. It's been disappointing because like I said, she used to trust me about computer stuff, but now angrily asks me "do you even know about <some pop sci "expert"> and the projects they're working on?!," namedropping all these supposed "respected" scientists she's been reading about the impending AI apocalypse and thinking I'm uninformed for not knowing them. It's like shit lady, I used to argue with Ray Kurtzweil's singularity nuts 12 years ago about this same sort of garbage. She's actually fairly youthful in her views for a boomer, she's a sci fi fan and prides herself on being socially progressive, and frequently talks about how much she loves science, but has always had a real "woowoo" new-agey bent to that

The conversation first came up because she told me about how she's been literally losing sleep with actual insomnia, thinking about AI with respect to what it will mean for her grandkids, what will happen to them in a world where machines become "ever more" intelligent, repeating talking points she heard somewhere about how "once machines become intelligent, they'll have no use for us and only see us as a threat." So many brainworms to sift through, from colonialist thinking to buying into "AI" hype. I did my best to disabuse her of this belief to begin with partly just to help her sleep better at night, though I admit I did remind her there are many many other real things to worry about regarding the world her grandkids will be inheriting. But she's sticking to it vehemently. She's been going off on me about how "all the top thinkers on the subject" agree with her, going on about how even Stephen Hawking thought AI would be a disaster (she thought that was an ace in the hole because I used to like discussing theoretical physics with her and never had the heart to differentiate for her the real but niche contributions Hawking made from his celebrity). Rather than think about what I said as someone who tends to know more about this kind of thing, she has decided I don't actually know anything.

It really has been a trip watching how the propaganda/hype mill and the shoehorning of "AI" into everything has broken so many brains who only 5 years ago would have laughed at anyone else for thinking the plot of Terminator was really happening.

I imagine the flop of ChatGPT 5 along with it becoming clear that current gen models aren't living up to the expectations might be starting to cool investor expectations.