Artificial Intelligence research has had a rollercoaster journey since its inception in the 1950s. It's been a cycle of soaring hopes, followed by setbacks and disappointments. But remember, just because we've had some bumps in the road, it doesn't mean we won't reach our destination.

Let's look at some areas where AI has outperformed humans. Take games, for instance. AI has mastered them, beating us at our own inventions. But when it comes to natural language processing, progress has been a bit of a slowpoke. It's interesting to note that tasks we thought would be tough, like chess, were conquered by surprisingly simple programs. Yet, seemingly easy tasks like common sense reasoning still pose a challenge.

Now, let's talk about where we're using AI today. You'll find it in hearing aids, helping people navigate routes, suggesting what to buy next, diagnosing medical conditions, powering robots, and even recognizing speech. It's also making its way into the military, being used in drones and surveillance systems. One of the biggest uses of AI today is in algorithmic trading systems.

But here's something to ponder. The line between narrow AI, which is specialized, and more general AI is a bit blurry. Most of the AI systems we see today are specialists, excelling in one area rather than being a jack of all trades. Some people are skeptical about reaching a stage where AI matches human intelligence, especially given the history of inaccurate predictions in this field. But who knows? If we make the right breakthroughs, we could see an explosion of intelligence in AI.