I wouldn't be too hard on Hinton. Researchers in image processing, geophysics and medicine have been saying the same thing since at least the early 1980's. There was always something coming that was just over the next hill that would take the human out of the loop. That special something always evaporated with time. I suppose it did keep funding coming in.

The bottom line is that predicting the future is hard. I'm always skeptical of people who pretend they can.

Of course, because you have different people all predicting a different future, some of them are bound to get it right. That doesn't mean the same person will be right again.