I suppose it's useful to define "the past" in the original question :) In one sense, sure, 90's is the present (consumer tech has been around for let's say 50

I suppose it's useful to define "the past" in the original question :) In one sense, sure, 90's is the present (consumer tech has been around for let's say 50 years), but in the context of computers the 90;s is the distant past. Personal computers (as in one's regular people could buy) become available (more or less) during the 70's. By the 80's things like Apple 2, Commodore, Spectrum etc are "main stream" - in the sense that "some people had them". But "some people" was a tiny minority. When I was at school most people didn't have them. Businesses were just getting going with them. The 90's (windows 3.1) makes them a bit more accessible, but still "rare". Windows 95 brings PC's (and the internet) "to the masses", but most homes still don't have them. Adoption has picked up though - lots of internet hype, FOMO and so on. More or less at this point the hype machines build up. There's always been over-hype, but up to this point it's limited to those geeks who read Byte or PC Magazine. Now it's gone "full consumer". Dot Com (bubble) ensues. There are fortunes to be made by those in the right place, at the right time, with the right product. But there's also a lot of weird. (pets.com et al). The hype-machine has never stopped. New languages (Java), Touch-phones, tablets, facebook, farmville (remember farmville?). We still recognized the survivors, but the failures quickly fade. Alta Vista? Dare I say, Yahoo? AOL? Compuserve? Geocities? 3DTV? So, to answer the question, sure, "scammy" hype has been with us, certainly since tech went mainstream. Everyone has the next great idea. Some stick around more than others. AI is having a moment in the sun. It's a new shiny toy at Christmas. Whether it has staying power - I don't know. But sooner or later it'll fade, and the next big thing will come along.