[justaman]

I'll take a stab at it.

I think they are saying...Intellectuals are going to change the way they guide their research or formulate their hypothesis based on the this work at MIT. This person believes that this project signifies a paradigm shift in the fundamental origins of thought, hereafter nothing will be the same.

I think this person is trying way to hard to sound smart or poetic.

[lucozade]

Nah. enord's saying that they'll all sit down together and realise that they don't know very much about intelligence after all.

So all the current excitement around super-intelligent AIs, and whatnot, will go the same way as it has the previous times we all got excited.

[logfromblammo]

Some of the most intelligent people in the world will gather together, and learn that they still don't even know what "intelligent" means, much less how to actually build it.

Then they will discover that this has happened before--several times--and the reasons they had to think that it was all different this time were all based on exaggeration and wishful thinking, promoted by people trying to make a buck.

We can throw more hardware at the problem now, but even so, every advance seems to be accompanied by a reassessment and lengthening of the distance to the finish line.

[k__]

But isn't AI getting percievably better every run?

[sampo]

The finish line of a marathon is getting nearer every step, but we've yet to clear even the first mile.

[fjsolwmv]

"this person" was channeling the pretentious buzzword-packed hype of the OP article.