According to a panel of hundreds of artificial intelligence researchers, the field is currently pursuing artificial general intelligence the wrong way. This insight was revealed at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)’s 2025 Presidential Panel on the Future of AI Research. The lengthy report was put together by 24 AI researchers whose expertise ranges from the state of AI infrastructure to the social aspects of artificial intelligence.
The report included a main takeaway for each section, as well as a community opinion section where respondents were asked their own thoughts about the section. The section on “AI Perception vs. Reality”, chaired by MIT computer scientist Rodney Brooks, referenced the Gartner Hype Cycle characterization, a five-stage cycle common for technology hype.
In November 2024, Gartner “estimated that hype for Generative AI had just passed its peak and was on the downswing,” the report noted. 79% of respondents in the community opinion section stated that current public perceptions of AI’s capabilities do not match the reality of AI research and development, with 90% saying that the mismatch is hindering AI research—74% of that number saying that “the directions of AI research are driven by the hype.” Artificial general intelligence (AGI) refers to human-level intelligence: The hypothetical intelligence of a machine that interprets information and learns from it as a human being would.
AGI is a holy grail.
