In 1983, Bill Gates turned away from AI hype and championed “softer software” that adapted to users’ needs
Publish Date: 2026-02-15 01:00:00
Source Domain: www.techradar.com
In 2026, artificial intelligence is everywhere -it writes code, creates images, generates audio and video, analyzes contracts and runs customer support desks. Tech giants compete over model sizes and training data the way carmakers once boasted about horsepower.
And yet, in 1985 – at the dawn of the PC era – some of the industry’s sharpest observers were already warning that AI might be “the most despised and abused [software concept] of the next year.”
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Awaiting AI Hype
That line came from Mitch Kapor, chairman of Lotus Development, speaking at the January 1985 Personal Computer Forum.
“The next big lemming-like rush will be to artificial intelligence,” he said. “So in a perverse way, AI is an exciting opportunity for people who recognize what it can do for customers.”
The February 25, 1985 editorial in InfoWorld, titled “Awaiting AI Hype, Promise,” now reads like a dispatch from the future.
“Will 1985 be the year when artificial intelligence finally emerges from the ivory towers of academia to become a useful tool?” James E. Fawcette, the magazine’s Editorial Director & Associate Publisher pondered. “Software companies desperate for new hooks to lure jaded users tired of the parade of me-too spreadsheets and word processors see artificial intelligence, or AI, as a possible savior.”
Sound familiar?
The editorial’s core anxiety could have been written about 2023’s generative AI boom: “The problem is: What can AI really do? Even the words artificial intelligence are a barrier to the technology’s application. They are so value- and image-laden that the term itself obstructs practical work.” AI, Fawcette warned, conjured “thinking machines, complete with Big Brother…
