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Slow compared to what? You could write equivalent verbiage for the slow progress of mathematics, chip design, or cinematography-- the only difference is that uninformed randoms feel less bold when critiquing fields these fields (as opposed to AI), or perhaps people are less inclined to waste time reading such half-formed speculation.

The reason progress towards general artificial intelligence is "slow" is because it's a hard problem.

Formulating a definition of intelligence precisely enough that it can be optimized is incredibly difficult. We can capture facets of it, in some settings, but also have to deal with the cost of hardware and the difficulty of acquiring data. Sometimes you can get inspired by examining how animals behave, or analyzing the brain, or considering what it means to learn in abstract, but considering one thing in isolation means that you tend to hit a wall eventually.

We refine ideas, we try things, and are buoyed by the advances in technology that makes some strategies possible, but for every major milestone we have a ton of things that people tried and couldn't get to work. I personally have spent months working on stuff that ultimately yielded a minor improvement; I've spent days proving results that ended up taking half a page in some papers. It's not easy, and no one expects it to be easy, although some jerks shilling something singularity-related might make such claims.

But saying (to pick an example from the article) "oh, you just need to incorporate emotions, bro" into a learning agent is just about the dumbest thing I have ever heard.