Artificial Intelligence: Separating the Hype from Reality

Like bees to honey, tech trends generate hype. Merely appending the word "dotcom" to a company's name drove up stock prices in the Internet's salad days. Cloud computing, big data, and cryptocurrencies each have taken their turn in the hype cycle in recent years. Every trend brings genuinely promising technological developments, befuddling buzzwords, enthusiastic investors, and reassuring consultants offering enlightenment--for a fee, naturally. Now the catchall phrase of artificial intelligence is shaping up as the defining technological trend of the moment.