It’s semantics, but I think the person above is just pointing out that “AI” is an old umbrella term that refers to a lot of technologies that include previous current and future work, and shouldn’t necessarily be bound forever to one era’s misapprehension and misuse of a particular subset of those technologies.

Prior examples of AI included early work by Alan Turing. Current examples include tools that enable people with disabilities. Future examples might offer solutions to major problems we face as a society. It would be a shame if use of a term as a buzzword was all it took to kill a discipline.