No one can agree on whether AI is the next big thing or all hype. Here’s why

AI is either your most helpful coworker, a glorified search engine or vastly overrated depending on who you ask.

And no one seems to agree on which is right.

Tech executives championing AI have long spun the narrative that the tech will revolutionize jobs and bring about a new industrial revolution. Skeptics think it’s all marketing hype, while some researchers and executives are sounding the alarm about safety concerns on their way out the door.

The discrepancy in how people view AI has perhaps never been so apparent as this past week, after a viral essay from an AI CEO and investor claimed the tech is coming for any job that involves sitting in front of a computer.

But there may be a simpler explanation as to why people have taken such divergent stands: People use different types of AI in different ways, yet it’s all being referred to in the same way.

“There’s just a wide spectrum of how much people have been exposed to the technology, how much they’ve used the technology,” said Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures who has led investments in AI companies including Anthropic. “And that’s also changing pretty rapidly.”