[TeMPOraL]

As if anyone in the public cared about marketing for CS research. Hardly anyone is even exposed to it.

AI in the public mind comes from science fiction, and it means the same thing it meant for the past 5+ decades: a machine that presents recognizable characteristics of a thinking person - some story-specific combination of being as smart (or much smarter) than people in a broad (if limited) set of domains and activities, and having the ability (or at least giving impression of it) to autonomously set goals based on its own value system.

That is the "AI" general population experiences - a sci-fi trope, not tech industry marketing.

[mjburgess]

The scifi AI boom in the 60s follows the AI research boom. This was the original academia hype cycle and one which still scars the public mind via this scifi.