Please stop the AI Confidence Theater

A critique of what the author calls 'AI Confidence Theater' — the widespread tendency to exaggerate AI capabilities and workflows on social media and inside companies. The author, who works at an AI company and uses AI daily, argues this hype cycle causes real harm: it distorts realistic expectations, creates exhausting FOMO, makes hiring harder (everyone now knows the vocabulary without the skills), and pressures employees to perform AI competence rather than deliver actual outcomes. The post identifies four root causes — social media incentivizing hype, the difficulty of verifying AI claims, marketing overselling certainty, and top-down corporate pressure from VCs and execs. It closes with a call for honesty: share real results, admit limitations, and recognize that the unglamorous work of maintaining and iterating AI systems is where actual value is created.