AI has had several winters.Footnote 1 Among the most significant, there was one in the late 1970s, and another at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. Today, we are talking about another predictable winter (Nield 2019; Walch 2019; Schuchmann 2019).Footnote 2 AI is subject to these hype cycles because it is a hope or fear that we have entertained since we were thrown out of paradise: something that does everything for us, instead of us, better than us, with all the dreamy advantages (we shall be on holiday forever) and the nightmarish risks (we are going to be enslaved) that this entails. For some people, speculating about all this is irresistible. It is the wild west of "what if" scenarios. But I hope the reader will forgive me for a "I told you so" moment.

The global rush forward of AI development continues at a breakneck pace and shows no signs of stopping. Stanford University recently called on the U.S. government to make a $120 billion investment in the nation's AI ecosystem over the course of the next 10 years, and reports from France show 38% more AI startups in 2019 with government and investor backing. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is planning a major initiative to use AI to speed up scientific discoveries and will soon ask for an additional $10 billion in funding. Dozens of countries have acknowledged that AI is going to be increasingly important for their citizens and the growth of their economies, resulting in widespread country-level investment and strategies around AI. This trend supports arguments that AI is entering a "golden age."