Laypeople have always had in mind Data or Skynet for what's considered genuine AI. Spielberg's AI movie in 2001 involved androids where the main character was a robot child given the ability to form an emotional bond to a human mother, resulting in him wanting to become a real boy.

The moving goalposts come from those hyping up each phase of AI as AGI being right around the corner, and then they get pushback on that.