How to (not) write an AI pitch

These are exciting times for the artificial intelligence community. Interest in the field is growing at an accelerating pace, registration at academic and professional machine learning courses is soaring, attendance in AI conferences is at an all-time high, and AI algorithms have become a vital component of many applications we use every day. But as with any field going through the hype cycle, AI is surrounded by a saturation of information, much of which is misleading or of little value. I can tell that from my inbox. Every day, I receive several pitches that claim company X has solved problem Y with "advanced AI techniques," or that AI can now solve problem Z. A few years ago, I might have opened and read these emails with interest.