That would be a deeply ahistorical argument.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect

AI is a very old field, and has always suffered from things being excluded from popsci as soon as they are achievable and commonplace. Path finding, OCR, chess engines and decision trees are all AI applications, as are machine learning and LLMs.

That Wikipedia article has a great line in it too

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists organization views the AI effect as a worldwide strategic military threat.[4] They point out that it obscures the fact that applications of AI had already found their way into both US and Soviet militaries during the Cold War.[4]

The discipline of Artificial Intelligence was founded in the 50s. Some of the current vibe is probably due to the “Second AI winter” of the 90s, the last time calling things AI was dangerous to your funding