Been scrolling through yet another online discussion about AI lately, and something struck me about how we react when public figures weigh in on technology. Pope Francis recently made some comments about AI needing to help rather than hinder young people’s development, and predictably, the internet had thoughts.

The responses were fascinating in their predictability. Someone immediately cracked wise about wanting to hear what Ariana Grande thinks about AI next, another person questioned whether anyone actually cares what the Pope says, and then came the inevitable historical whataboutism – bringing up Galileo and the Inquisition like it’s some kind of gotcha moment.

The tech world is buzzing about o3’s supposedly superhuman abilities in geographical location identification, with some claiming it represents our first glimpse of superintelligence. But let’s pump the brakes for a minute and examine what’s really happening here.

Working in DevOps, I’ve seen firsthand how easy it is to get caught up in the hype of new technologies. The excitement around o3’s performance in identifying locations from photographs, particularly that viral case of the Nepalese rock formation, reminds me of the early days of facial recognition when everyone thought their phone was somehow magically intelligent.

The latest drama in the AI world has me shaking my head at my desk this morning. Another day, another round of inflated claims and heated debates about the latest language model. This time it’s about Grok 3, and the internet is doing what it does best - turning nuanced technical discussions into tribal warfare.

Working in tech for over two decades has taught me that reality usually lies somewhere between the extremes. When a new AI model drops, we typically see two camps form immediately: the true believers who herald it as the second coming, and the complete skeptics who dismiss it as smoke and mirrors. Both miss the mark.

Remember when flying cars were just around the corner? Or when fully autonomous vehicles were supposed to dominate our roads by 2020? The tech industry has a long history of overselling the immediate future, and now we’re seeing similar patterns with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

OpenAI’s Sam Altman recently made waves by stating they’re “confident” about knowing how to build AGI, with some vague implications about AI agents coming this year. The statement immediately reminded me of those countless tech presentations I’ve attended over the years, where speakers confidently declared revolutionary breakthroughs were just months away.