I'm not exactly a spring chicken either, and I 100% agree on the insane, unwarranted hype of blockchain and crypto (plenty of examples in my comment history).
But the huge difference with, for example, blockchain, is that despite all the attempts by the hypesters to explain what revolutionary tech it was, I was always left thinking one of "Umm, OK, but what do I actually do with it" or "How is this better than just a normal database?" or "Actually, that's not possible." Blockchain was nearly always a cool tech looking for a use case beyond cryptocurrencies.
But with LLMs, I never felt that way. I was immediately blown away by how cool ChatGPT was, and how much real value I got out of it. Sure, I think there is plenty of overhyping (and I think it's a little funny how companies are trying to add that little star icon everywhere, even when it's just annoying), but even if I ignore what everyone says about it and just use the tech personally, by myself, I'm still left thinking "Damn this is just magic" many times a day.
But the huge difference with, for example, blockchain, is that despite all the attempts by the hypesters to explain what revolutionary tech it was, I was always left thinking one of "Umm, OK, but what do I actually do with it" or "How is this better than just a normal database?" or "Actually, that's not possible." Blockchain was nearly always a cool tech looking for a use case beyond cryptocurrencies.
But with LLMs, I never felt that way. I was immediately blown away by how cool ChatGPT was, and how much real value I got out of it. Sure, I think there is plenty of overhyping (and I think it's a little funny how companies are trying to add that little star icon everywhere, even when it's just annoying), but even if I ignore what everyone says about it and just use the tech personally, by myself, I'm still left thinking "Damn this is just magic" many times a day.