The Apple findings were published earlier this month in a technical paper that has attracted widespread attention in AI labs and the lay press, not only because the results are well-documented, but also because the researchers work for the nation's leading high-tech consumer company - and one that has just rolled out a suite of purported AI features for iPhone users.

"The fact that Apple did this has gotten a lot of attention, but nobody should be surprised at the results," says Gary Marcus, a critic of how AI systems have been marketed as reliably, well, "intelligent."