Let’s be honest: the current AI hype cycle is mostly bullshit. Are you seeing any real benifets to all the AI tech we have got so far other than the stupid TikToks or getting Copilot to do the coding for you?

Not because AI isn’t real, or because machine learning hasn’t produced real results. It has. The problem is the culture built around it—one driven by arrogant businessmen, Hollywood-fueled fantasies, and a swarm of wannabe “tech guys” who contribute almost nothing to actual AI development while loudly claiming they’re shaping the future.

AI has become the perfect marketing drug.

Much of today’s hype isn’t grounded in engineering reality. It’s grounded in sci-fi narratives and investor slide decks. Executives talk about “AGI” as if it’s just around the corner, as if intelligence is something you unlock with a funding round and a press release. That fantasy sells well to people who don’t understand the technology and to audiences raised on movies where AI is either a god or a villain.

The reality is far less cinematic. Real AI is narrow, brittle, data-hungry, and full of trade-offs. It’s statistics, approximations, failure modes, and constant iteration. But that doesn’t sound revolutionary enough to justify billion-dollar valuations, so it gets buried.

The loudest voices pushing the hype are rarely researchers or engineers advancing the field. They’re businessmen who discovered AI after it became trendy and now speak like prophets. They rebrand basic software as “AI-powered,” wrap APIs in thin layers, automate trivial workflows, and sell it as innovation. The objective isn’t progress—it’s positioning. Say just enough to look visionary, stay vague enough to avoid scrutiny, and move fast enough to cash in.

Alongside them is the army of self-proclaimed AI experts. They don’t train models, don’t design systems, and don’t contribute research. They consume tools, chain services together, repeat buzzwords, and call it building the future. Using tools is fine. Pretending that using tools equals innovation is not.

This creates a vicious, profitable loop. Investors fear missing out, founders exaggerate capabilities, media amplifies the story, influencers repeat it louder, and reality gets quietly sidelined. Everyone involved is rewarded for keeping expectations high and contributions minimal. Real innovation is slow, expensive, and uncertain. Hype is cheap and scalable.

The cost of this nonsense isn’t abstract. Engineers are pressured to deliver impossible promises. Businesses make decisions based on fantasy. Users expect magic and get glorified autocomplete. Over time, the field itself loses credibility, and when the bubble deflates, the same people will simply pivot to the next buzzword.

AI itself isn’t the problem.

The problem is the cult built around it—the exaggeration, the posturing, the intellectual dishonesty. The belief that saying “AI” loudly enough replaces understanding, effort, or real contribution.

Real progress doesn’t need Hollywood narratives or arrogant businessmen pretending they invented intelligence. It needs engineers, researchers, patience, and honesty. Right now, what we have is mostly a shitshow.