Agree. Deep learning does not bring us closer to AGI. It might get us closer to other proxies of "mechanical intelligence" that will be very productive.

I now believe we are 3 years from building an AI that writes Python well enough to build itself, based on some experiments I did recently: http://sparkz.org/ai/program-synthesis/2017/10/12/self-hosti...

Most technical people will understand the difference between programming and AGI. The general public might not.

The useful thing out of AGI discussions, is that they engage the general public.