I think it's easy to pick apart arguments out of context, but since the parent is comparing it to AI, I assume what they meant is that it hasn't turned out to be nearly as revolutionary for general-purpose computing as we thought.
Talking computers became an ubiquitous sci-fi trope. And in reality... even now, when we have nearly-flawless natural language processing, most people prefer to text LLMs than to talk to them.
Heck, we usually prefer texting to calling when interacting with other people.
I don’t think anyone watched that demo back in 1984 and thought “oh this tech means we can talk to computers!” - it was clearly a demonstration of… well text to speech. It demonstrated successfully exactly what it could do, and didn’t imply what they’re implying it implied.
Talking computers became an ubiquitous sci-fi trope. And in reality... even now, when we have nearly-flawless natural language processing, most people prefer to text LLMs than to talk to them.
Heck, we usually prefer texting to calling when interacting with other people.