Tech leaders claim AI is an unstoppable force, but the systems are not intelligent and do not represent a meaningful step toward artificial general intelligence. The November 2022 release of ChatGPT by OpenAI marked the start of public engagement with large language model generative AI systems. By January 2023, it had become the fastest-growing consumer software application in history, gaining over 100 million users in two months. Other companies—Anthropic, Google, xAI, Microsoft, and Meta—followed with competing models, which became multimodal, able to respond to image, video, and sound inputs as well as text. Developer claims became extreme: Mark Zuckerberg wrote that “superintelligence is now in sight,” Sam Altman stated “We are now confident we know how to build AGI,” Dario Amodei suggested his model may have become a conscious entity, and Elon Musk said “humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence.” Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, told attendees at his 2026 University of Arizona commencement speech: “When someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat. You just get on.” His speech was met with loud and steady boos by the graduates. The systems are powered by complex technology, at the most basic level operating as giant statistical predictors.