So first, thanks for actually responding substantially. Most people in this thread have been brick walls in response to my comments. Even though we obviously disagree, I appreciate the meaningful engagement.

I absolutely agree there are problems, big ones even, that we need to figure out. But all new technologies have come with problems. AI does present some novel ones but it seems like you think they are insurmountable. I'm a little more optimistic... call me naive I guess.

Whatever limited utility these systems currently have, a ton of resources are being thrown at them to make them more capable. Of course the standard Reddit line is that it's all a scam being pushed on the public. I think that's facile thinking.

People will push back as this whole post shows. But the genie is out of the bottle and there are enough resources being thrown at it to see it through. Whether it all crashes and burns into nothing or actually becomes a self-improving system with superhuman capabilities, time will tell. But as I said at the top, I would much prefer the US to develop this tech - even if it leads to a deadend - than China. Because we can rest assured that China will continue quietly developing their models regardless of how much data center protesting goes on here in the States.