I still remember the first time I heard the term artificial intelligence. I was in high school, listening to my computer science teacher talk about a future filled with robots that could think, learn, and maybe even feel. It sounded like science fiction coming to life. The idea felt thrilling.
But now, when I hear the words artificial intelligence, I don’t feel excitement anymore. Somewhere along the way, tech companies took something visionary and turned it into a buzzword.
For a few years after high school, I didn’t hear much about artificial intelligence. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the term suddenly came back. Only this time, it wasn’t “artificial intelligence”. It was AI — rebranded and repackaged.
Companies were calling AI “the future.” I let myself believe the hype. I imagined humanoid robots helping people, solving crises, and making life easier for everyone.
Then I saw what AI actually meant in the real world.
Some products could answer chat messages or voice commands. Others could generate pictures from text prompts. That was it. Every company was selling the same thing — a voice assistant, chatbot or an image generator.
That’s when I realised: AI, as we know it today, is not really the artificial intelligence I imagined. It’s a marketing label for products that are, at best, barely intelligent. Maybe we should call it BI.
And that’s not the only issue.
AI has spread like the COVID-19 pandemic – into search engines, operating systems, cars, and productivity tools. It’s everywhere where you were better off without it. It’s become a nuisance and obstruction that the first thing I have to look for when I use a new product is how to turn AI off.
It’s not that I never use these AI tools. I do when it genuinely helps. But too often, it feels like something added for the sake of saying it’s there.
Still, I don’t want to give up on the idea of AI. The real one that belongs to scientists, engineers, and dreamers — not marketers. I want AI to return as a field that blends science, technology, and the humanities to build systems that serve humanity. Machines that help end suffering and conflict, not create more of it.