[a-priori]

This is a real concern. But as I see it, the difference is that the last time around, everyone was sold on the potential applications -- which turned out to be way harder than anyone realized.

This time around, the technology is seeing real applications today, so the valuations are more grounded in reality. So while people are definitely investing based on the future potential, the worst case scenario -- that we're going to hit a wall next week where no further progress can be made in machine learning research -- wouldn't be as devastating as the last AI winter.

At this point there's a lot of work to do, and money to be made, applying the current state of the art even if no further progress can be made.