What rock are you people living under as billions flow into companies like Nvidia, OpenAI right in front of your faces? Get off Fox News. I see AI art in more shops and websites than not in some verticals (games, ads, dispensaries/cannabis, cosmetics, restaurants) and more AI customer service than ever before (chat bots, phone agents) - every company is incorporating some degree of AI, and there's already a budding space around infra with HF, Replicate, Ollama, etc. not to mention millions of people use ChatGPT daily. There is tons of value in AI what are you talking about?
> But I don't believe those added any real value (they may have generated profits for their makers, but I think that was a zero- or negative-sum trade).
Okay, so some people are making money with it, but no true value was added, eh?
Do new scams create value? No, even though they make money for some people. The same with speculative ventures that don't pan out. You can only say something's added value when it's been positive sum overall, not just allowed some people to take a profit at the expense of others.
Is any of it adding value though? I can see that AI has made it easier to do SEO spam and make an excuse for your lack of customer support, just like IVR systems before it. But I don't believe those added any real value (they may have generated profits for their makers, but I think that was a zero- or negative-sum trade). Put it this way: is AI being used to generate anything that people are actually happy to receive?