Don't worry. AI is going to be monetized and extractive in no time. Just like Social Media went from "fresh, fun and cool new tech" to "how did we let this horrible beast take hold of the world," AI will take the same path. In 10 years or sooner, when 99.99% of what you read, hear, and watch is AI slop, you're going to post "This used to be a cool invention!" if there's even a place left for humans to post by that time.
I agree. It will absolutely get there. Such is the trend of all scientific inventions. A breakthroughs occurs, prosperity follows in response, hedonic adaption causes satisfaction to regress to the mean, and then people squeeze every remaining drop of value out of the technology while we wait for those capable of true innovation to work their magic once more. I don't find it idyllic, but I accept it as the way the world works. It feels like a force of nature to me.
The period we're in is fleeting. I think it should be acknowledged and treasured for what it is rather than viewed with disdain because of what is inevitably to come. I stopped using Facebook and never moved to Insta/TikTok when things began to feel too extractive, but, for a good decade there, I felt so close to so many more people than I ever thought possible. It was a really nice experience that I no longer get to have. I'm not mad at social media. I'm happy I got to experience that window of time.
Right now I'm very happy to be using LLMs without feeling like I'm being preyed upon. I love that programming feels fresh and new to me after 15 years. I'm looking forward to having my ability to self-express magnified ten-fold by leveraging generative audio/visuals, and I look forward to future breakthroughs that occur once all these inventions become glorified ad-delivery mechanisms.
None of this seems bad to me. Innovation and technological progress is responsible for every creature comfort I have experienced in my entire life. People deserve to make livings off of those things even if they weren't solely responsible for the innovation.