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The AI Hype Index: Unsexy AI

29 July 2026 at 09:42

It feels bad enough when an open letter signed by leading economists warns that AI might steal your job. The fact it may soon be better than you at making dinner? Insult to injury. But that’s exactly what the company 1X promised when it showed off a pair of new, impressively dexterous (and, to some, oddly sexy?) robotic hands in a July demo.

While the tech community was sharply divided over the appeal of those disembodied hands, almost everyone can agree that a few things are decidedly not sexy: Grok’s porn-pilled translation feature, Meta’s creepy glasses (which may soon get even creepier), and Big Tech’s emissions (which continue to skyrocket).Β 

But while it’s not always the most popular technology, at least AI is paying off for one group: single chip workers in Korea, newly inundated with dating opportunities thanks to their giant bonuses. Who says you can’t buy love?

The AI Hype Index: AI gets booed in graduation season

28 May 2026 at 10:51

It is one thing to say AI will change the world. It is another to expect the class of 2026 to applaud it. In fact, when former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told University of Arizona graduates that their task is to help shape AI, he was met with a resounding chorus of boos. β€œI can hear you,” he said, before conceding that fears about disappearing jobs and a broken future were β€œrational.”

This is not exactly the message one hopes to hear while sweating under a polyester gown and tallying student loan payments. Graduates have been jeering at AI pep talks at other commencements too, including ceremonies at the University of Central Florida and Middle Tennessee State University. Still, increasingly loud skepticism hasn’t stopped OpenAI from winning court cases, raising enormous sums of money, and launching new partnerships. And AI is even earning some unlikely cheerleaders: Reese Witherspoon has warned women to embrace it or be replaced by it.

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