The Download: why AI’s latest breakthroughs and fears may be more hype than reality

Plus: 22 nations have called for a new global body to oversee AI.

This is today's edition of The Download , our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.

—Timnit Gebru, executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), and Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the University of Washington

It’s been a busy few months for AI hype, with companies making breathless claims about hacking, mathematical breakthroughs, and the prospect of self-improving superintelligence.

In all these cases, massive fanfare from the companies, presented as mea culpas in the hacking incidents, has been accompanied by intense press coverage. But once experts have had time to examine what happened, very different stories emerge.