There was a time when I'd introduce people to 'Eliza'-type programs. Those programs stashed phrases typed in by users. When new users typed in a phrase, the programs would parrot back the stashed phrases ... based on really crude algo's, or even random selection.

Nonetheless, I watched people get really worked up about what the computer was 'saying'. Partly because of the sarcastic stuff people would say, partly because of their expectations about 'cybernetic brains'.

Now the 'Cyc'le is back. And people actually working on this really hard problem are not helped by dumb marketing.