How Internet Gurus Sell You a Course Promising to Master AI… with Pure Hot Air
I’ve felt the need to write about a phenomenon that has become almost omnipresent: the epidemic of tech gurus.
This time I’m writing from the world of artificial intelligence, because it’s the niche where I see the phenomenon at its most exaggerated, but the same could apply to programming, healthy living, or any other field where a supposed technical expertise has turned into a marketing product.
It doesn’t matter the niche: health, productivity, or AI.
There’s always someone ready to sell you the ultimate course, the method that “will change your life,” or the model that “will make you succeed.”
And the worrying part isn’t that these characters exist — it’s that many of them don’t actually understand what they’re teaching.
AI: the perfect breeding ground for the new gurus
I’ve been in the world of artificial intelligence for 3 years now.
I use it, test it, study it, and above all, try to understand it.
But lately I’ve watched the technical discourse get diluted among videos with titles like “The secret AI tool that will work for you.”
I try to keep the articles I publish as evergreen as possible, but when it comes to AI that’s nearly impossible.
A clear example is this guide on installing LM Studio: it’s still valid, but the program’s interface I show in it has already changed.
In AI, what’s “cutting-edge” today is digital archaeology tomorrow.
And in that fast-changing environment, where it’s hard to separate useful information from noise, a new kind of character thrives: the hype seller.
The one who talks faster than he learns.
The modern guru’s playbook
Doesn’t matter if they’re talking about AI, web development, or nutrition.
The script is the same:
- Free hook content. A video or post with lines like “nobody tells you this.”
- Building authority. Technical language mixed with personal storytelling.
- Emotional promise. “You’ll master AI in 7 days,” “Get ready for the future,” “Build and sell your own software without knowing how to code.”
- Paid offer. Course, mentorship, or private community.
- Automation. Everything packaged, monetized, and put on repeat.
It’s a perfect business model: low risk, high margin, and tons of visibility.
According to Emprendedores.es, digital training is growing at double-digit rates in Spain, and platforms like Systeme.io confirm that online courses are a goldmine if you know how to position yourself.
Maybe that’s why a well-known SEO guru has now switched to selling AI courses: same audience, same pitch, new futuristic wrapping.
Nothing wrong with those who teach rigorously.
The problem shows up when authority is built on marketing rather than knowledge.
The mirage of AI “experts”
I was recently running tests with gpt-oss-20b, an open source model from OpenAI.
I looked for documentation, experimented, and drew my own conclusions.
Meanwhile, a well-known Spanish tech content creator — one of the most respected — put out a video claiming that gpt-oss-20b was “the ultimate revolution.”
His enthusiasm rested on four lines of marketing copy from OpenAI.
No paper, no testing, no open datasets. Just repeating sensationalist headlines that made it sound like the solution to war and world hunger.
Open source? Technically yes, but the training and the real data remain opaque.
A funny notion of “open,” isn’t it? But that never even got a mention.
Setting aside its speed (tokens per second) and its friendly conversational style, those are its only real strengths.
Beyond that, there are plenty of superior models: better at reasoning, coherence and comprehension.
That’s why it disappoints me to see one of the most respected tech creators in our country put out a video about this model with pure sensationalism, just to churn out mainstream content and stay on top of the wave.
The smoke isn’t in the AI — it’s in the pitch
The problem isn’t teaching or selling courses.
The problem is doing it through smoke, through hype, through ignorance dressed up as confidence.
And the most ironic part: this pattern isn’t exclusive to AI.
The same thing happens in any other field.
Not every content creator is a hype seller, of course.
There are serious professionals who research, test, and keep their content updated constantly.
But the ones who just repeat what others say, without cross-checking or experimenting, are the ones polluting the public conversation.
How not to fall for it
- Distrust the messianic tone. Nobody “masters AI” in 7 days or “achieves success” without effort.
- Ask for proof, not promises. Those who know, demonstrate; those who sell hot air, decorate.
- Check how up to date it is. In technology, three months is a geological era.
- Compare sources. If everyone repeats the same argument, it probably comes from the same press release.
- Develop critical thinking. No AI can replace that.
Conclusion: knowledge can’t be improvised
Technical authority isn’t built with headlines, but with experience.
And that’s true for AI as much as for any other field.
We live in a moment when technology moves faster than human judgment, and that creates a vacuum that hype sellers are very good at exploiting.
But real learning — the kind that transforms and lasts — still requires something that can’t be automated: curiosity, honesty, and work.