[birthcert]

There is a difference between ML research and AI research. AI, traditionally, has more leeway in using intuitive, abstract, or anthropomorphized terms, over ML, which has established learning and optimization theory and a more solid foundation in applied mathematics.

Basically, the deep learning hype in popular science media, owes this status in large part, because it allows nice pictures to be shown. RL research fares well, because they can show video of the agent playing the game. I bet the choice of Doom was also made with this PR in mind, and of course publications like Wired are going to show this work to their readers, over, say, the RELU-paper (impactful in the field, but not much to write an article around).

[Retra]

It's also just plain easier and more fun to work on something when you can see how it behaves rather than trying to infer it by reading some numbers.