The development dynamics of every new technology, and in particular of artificial intelligence, is usually associated with promises of its special performance and completely new application possibilities. Against this background, the question posed in this article aims to fathom what special features the technological promise of AI has. It is asked where the obvious and seemingly irresistible persuasiveness, but also the fascination and fears of the public towards this technology come from, especially currently with regard to new language systems like ChatGPT. The thesis is that the technology promise has a very imprecise rhetoric. It appears simple, clear, and convincing, is fundamentally difficult to dispute, and opens up a wide range of connection possibilities. To achieve this, it relies on fuzzy conceptual metaphors, very unspecific assessments, implicit misconceptions, and overlooks fundamental application and functional problems of AI. In this respect, one can also speak of the "False Promises" (Noam Chomsky) of AI in general and of the new AI-based language systems in particular. Nevertheless, it is further assumed that the technological promise of AI ultimately does not feed its lasting persuasive power from the aforementioned opacity and lack of substantiality, but rather draws from the old “myth of the intelligent machine”, which is equal to, if not superior to, human intelligence.

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