In my head, I just substitute "AI" with "machine learning" or "statistics". > and I feel the AI boom is driven by hypothesis that general models eventually out

In my head, I just substitute "AI" with "machine learning" or "statistics". > and I feel the AI boom is driven by hypothesis that general models eventually outperform specialized ones given enough size/data/whatever. I think in the sciences, I'd generally put my money on the specialized models. I hope that the hype around AI makes it easier (by providing tooling, platforms, better algorithms, educational materials etc.) to train specialized models. Kind of a trickle-down of hype money :-)