Big Tech loves to market itself as the vanguard of artificial intelligence. Big tech AI companies like Meta, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI flood the media with headlines about multimillion-dollar hires, “superintelligence” roadmaps, and transformative breakthroughs that promise to reshape the world. But behind the big tech ai hype lies a less glamorous truth: most of what’s being celebrated as groundbreaking AI is just cleverly branded math and marketing. The myth of Big Tech’s AI supremacy is more about perception than substance.

Big Tech’s AI Hype Machine Is Running on Empty

Take a closer look at the so-called AI experts these companies elevate. It’s not uncommon to see headlines about 27-year-olds leading AI research divisions or pulling in massive compensation packages. These big tech ai individuals are painted as prodigies, visionaries guiding us toward a post-human future. But scratch the surface, and many are simply good at navigating academic networks, selling an idea, or aligning themselves with hype cycles. Few are pushing the boundaries of real intelligence. Many are riding waves created by decades of foundational work done quietly by researchers outside the spotlight, often in academia or independent labs with limited funding.

Big Tech AI: Boastful, Narrow, and Overrated

Meta, for example, made waves by hiring a chinese guy (raised in the U.S.) to head its AI superintelligence team. Touted as a genius, his profile reads more like a hustler than a hardened scientist. It’s not that these individuals are incompetent, far from it, but the lionization of their roles is disproportionate to their contributions. Real AI innovation is complex, slow, and often invisible. The people doing the most meaningful work are rarely in glossy headlines.

Big Tech AI Won the Hype War, Not the Science

What Big Tech has mastered isn’t artificial intelligence, it’s narrative control. Their core competency is advertising and platform dominance and they’ve applied that same strategy to AI. What’s referred to as “superintelligence” is often narrow AI, sophisticated pattern recognition systems built on huge datasets and vast compute resources. These tools are undeniably powerful, but they’re still a far cry from human-like reasoning or general intelligence. GPT models, image generators, and recommender systems are impressive, but they aren’t conscious, creative, or autonomous.

Big tech ai acquisitions

The myth persists because it serves many purposes. Investors love the promise of AI, it keeps valuations high and markets excited. Politicians want to appear aligned with innovation, and the public, driven by decades of science fiction, is eager to believe that the machine revolution is imminent. Meanwhile, the actual field of AI is splintered between those quietly building useful tools and those loudly proclaiming we’re nearing a singularity.

Ironically, some of the most impactful AI projects today are being developed under the radar. Independent researchers and small teams are solving practical problems in health care, climate modeling, linguistics, and robotics, often with limited resources and no PR team. They aren’t raising billions or issuing philosophical manifestos about “aligning AI with humanity”, they’re just building. These are the people who deserve recognition, yet their work is drowned out by the echo chamber of Big Tech’s self-promotion.

Big Tech AI Companies Get All Funding from The Governments!

Even more concerning is how this myth distorts policy and funding. Governments are beginning to shape regulations and national strategies around the assumption that companies like Meta, Google or OpenAI are the undisputed leaders of the AI era. This not only entrenches their dominance but also stifles alternatives. It creates a feedback loop where money and attention go to those who already have it, not to those with the best ideas.

We need a reset in how we think and talk about AI. Instead of chasing media narratives, we should be asking tougher questions. Who controls the data? Who benefits from the deployment of AI systems? Who decides what gets built and what doesn’t? And most importantly, what kind of intelligence are we actually building?

The mythology of Big Tech AI dominance is just that: a myth. The real story is more nuanced, more diverse, and far more grounded than Silicon Valley would like you to believe. It’s time we separate the signal from the noise. Big tech AI increasingly feels like a cult exclusive to elites and their privileged 27-year-old Chinese offspring. Meanwhile, China has eyes everywhere, and their most effective tactic is subtle, calculated influence within key companies like Meta. But who are we to judge, right? It’s all politics and game! 🙂