It's a solution in search of a problem.

And it's a bunch of misanthropic sociopaths with main character syndrome who read scifi novels and saw the warnings as a guideline because "I'm the super smartest, I can implement it correctly, and I have to be first, because those other guys won't do it correctly"

Just because you and your friends don’t use it, doesn’t mean it isn’t being used. If 95% of AI is useless then why are hardware prices so high? The demand must’ve dropped off by now if all the hardware they bought to date is going unused, because why would they be buying more?

Companies are definitely using AI, and not just as chatbots. I use it everyday as a search tool, to manipulate data and perform other tasks which saves me time because I no longer have to do it manually.

Most mid-large sized companies have terabytes or even petabytes of data that their AI tools are reasoning over, which requires more than the processing power of your small local model running on a Mac Mini.

I don’t disagree with you that it is impacting other industries and consumers, but as long as customers have a use for it and are willing to pay, the AI industry will continue.

The fact that the major players are still in business means someone thinks so.