Should we fear AI or should we fear the people who write about AI?

Ashok Goel, a professor at Georgia Tech, made the news this week with the revelation that one of the TA's that he used in his AI course was actually an "AI." Now, I have no reason to believe that Goel was trying to do something wrongheaded. I think he was just playing around. But the media love AI stories these days and have yet again led the public on a very wrong headed journey about what AI is and what it can be. Could a chatbot be an effective TA? It could certainly beat a rather disinterested TA.