I was and still am skeptical of "AI" or more accurately the proliferation of LLMs. But, I think some nuance in the discussions around it have been lost overtime. I actually think the reason I'm a skeptic, and why that nuance has been lost are interlinked though: Capitalism/Hype Bandwagoning.

Companies are just chasing $$$ by following a fad, enshitifying their products in the process. But I do think there are applications that can be actually useful to its end users, and profitable to business

The example currently on my mind comes from what I'm doing at work. And that despite my heavy skepticism, I've become "Mr. AI" at my job.

Currently I'm working on an AI powered chat experience that homeowners can interact with to answer questions about their improvement projects and even get dynamic cost estimation from some of our APIs. It costs the homeowner nothing to use, but eventually (what I'm currently doing anyway) it will have a monetization/conversion hook added to the flow.

Do I hate this persistent march to monetize any and every aspect of the human condition? Hell yes, it's garbage for species and society.

But it can be done in a natural way that isn't so in your face. If a homeowner is asking questions about doing kitchen renovation, on our site designed to help them find both the information and contractors to help/do the work, there is a non-forced way to eventually ask "wanna fill out this form to find contractors?"

That doesn't sound inherently "evil"