Indeed there seems an arrogance of assumed certainty with little credit given to the nature of knowledge itself, that real knowledge is in the collective, and how dependent this is on a simple, equitable energy supply to all, in fact we've never seen its power, because to date, humanity as a whole has been almost starved of the energy needed for it to survive and prosper as a whole, only a few individuals are lucky enough to be able to air their thoughts as if they speak for the whole, but actually they can only project their own viewpoint isolated by privilege, they can't speak on behalf of the population of geniuses who were never empowered, nor even got to live.
We haven't really seen much progress actually, as long as we allow the majority to continue to perish, and the planet continue to be ravaged by extraction of energy for profit, by which the privileged majority retain control, without even realising it.
Until we sort out that basic problem of unconditional energy supply to all , we have no chance of knowing what Ai is or means, it seems to me.
Like you say, algos (usually designed just to make or increase profit), are hardly even close to real Ai, surely.