A former Google engineer, Blake Lemoine, made headlines in 2022 when he publicly claimed that Google’s chatbot, known as LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), had achieved sentience. Lemoine argued that LaMDA exhibited self-awareness and emotions, describing its responses as a “sweet kid who just wants to help the world be a better place for all of us.” Some ideas are so silly that only AI researchers can believe them.
We do not endorse the unsupported claims made by Musk, Aschenbrenner, Kurzweil, Sutskever, and Lemoine. However, we will argue that hype is necessary and beneficial, although it is insufficient for innovation. What we need for innovation is not just hype, but also “getting our hands dirty” through experimentation.
Hype may seem excessive, and at times it is, but it is crucial for innovation as it mobilizes capital, attracts talent, and captures public interest. However distasteful, Amara’s law—that we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run—highlights the role of hype as both a catalyst and a signal for future opportunities. Businesses must balance short-term caution with long-term positioning to leverage these opportunities effectively. In other words, innovation requires navigating the tricky landscape of hype.
