Nice analysis. IMO, those chasing AI have stars in their eyes. The gist is that they largely are into the "cool" aspect of AI and glamorizing the "look at what we can do" aspect of AI to the point of literally being dangerous. Case in point.
I have watched the competitions of autonomous robots with simultaneous emotions of wonder and disappointment. The REAL use and focus of these autonomous robot effort should be in relieving human effort and in commercially viable areas.
For instance, the introduction of a robotic arm that welds the frames of automobiles makes the most sense. The arm could make the same exact welds at 8am all the way through 5pm without any breaks. Whereas a person doing the same thing would make inconsistent welds, be burned, get blinded and get smoked out by toxic fumes.
What I am saying is that the effort should be made in robotics/AI to replace Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs, not autonomous cars. FWIW.
I know, it’s not “right” to do so, but I am occasionally amused when a new form of AI comes out and it learns all the dirty jokes, “racist” comments, and other “inappropriate” things, then needs to be re-taught the “correct” responses. C’mon, it’s a little funny...