[joggery]

>hear of a name before you hear of a concrete achievement

That's an excellent criterion.

I often wonder if many famous past intellectuals were mere celebrities where I can't recall a single achievement. And if one can't name a famous true idea in an current academic field, perhaps the field itself is worthless.

[BickNowstrom]

It is a poor criterion, because it is so subjective and dependent on PR machines.

The OP just has not heard of any accomplishments, but anyone with a little expertise in deep (reinforcement) learning knows about the major contributions to the field by Schmidhuber.

Using this criterion you are using popular media and fields you know not much about, to brush away the accomplishments of respectable scientists. Don't base your skepticism on your own lack of knowledge: that makes it selective -- You can not cut through the bullshit, if you don't know how to wield a sword.

[joggery]

The criterion is not about assessing a particular individual's contributions, it's about choosing what and whom to investigate in the first place. Of course this is subjective, and rightly so.