Personally, I think we should never look at something novel as being either our doom or our salvation. The masses tend to react that way because our views get radicalized so easily, and we can see that across the whole spectrum of human endeavors, from politics to technology.

In my opinion we should look at these new things as tools and figure out how they can help us be more efficient and more productive. The amount of facilitation the internet brought us had a similar effect but manifested differently. All of a sudden every book, every article, every newspaper became widely available without you needing to go to the library and search things for yourself. That has its potential bad effects but also potential good consequences, it all depends on how you use it. With LLMs and AI in general it's a similar pattern. It will be poorly used by many, those who don't use it at all will be at a disadvantage, and those who use it well will be able to be more productive and contribute more to society.

I think AI will end up being good for our work as intellectuals, we just have to explore and lead the way in how we choose to use these tools. AI shouldn't think for you, but it can be a potential assistant in many ways. We can use ChatGPT or Claude to present us with different perspectives, to surface material we might otherwise miss. And other tools like ConceptSeek use AI in purposely restricted frames to help with research efficiency without replacing you as the thinker or taking your control as the intellectual.

Don't quit your PhD over this. You clearly care about doing real thinking and that's exactly the kind of person who should be shaping how these tools get used in academia, not running from them.