I think a large amount of AI skeptics are just tired. I'm what you would call in the AI skeptic camp and the most I'll contribute to in person conversations anymore is feigned indifference towards the topic or something along the lines of "Oh, I haven't really been keeping up with AI news lately."
For me personally (and maybe for others as well?) there's two parts to this. The first is that it's exhausting to constantly be pulled into "debates" with staunch pro-AI supporters who can't accept that you have some reason to be against it or agree to disagree and move on from the conversation. The second is that I've noticed that even mild anti-AI sentiment lately seems to make people (especially tech people) see and treat you as an anti-science luddite or conspiracy theorist.
It's easier to just pretend I don't care or that I'm not interested in public than be a skeptic.
This is always how it is, though. People would get straight up in your face if you told them that the Apple Vision Pro wasn't going to take over the world. People would get straight up in your face if you told them 3D TV was a fad. People would straight get up in your face if you told them there are alternatives to React. People once thought Visual Basic was going to end programming as we knew it. People once thought UML to code (Rational Rose) was going to end programming as we know it.
There are certain types of people who will always do this - and think they're right.
Product/tech fanboyism has always existed, sure, not going to argue that point.
But I don't remember it ever being getting anywhere near as heated or pushed in real life conversations. That kind of borderline religious fanaticism mostly lived in online spaces.