The problem is that "AI: The Product" and "AI: The Company" have two different marketing needs that undercut each other.

AI companies need to come off as these big scary world transforming entities because they need concessions from politicians and they need their perceived value to go up for their shareholders.

But AI products need to come off as benign but useful things you would use in your every day.

When the White House puts a temporary hold order on frontier models, its incredible marketing for the company. It makes what they're doing seem really important, like an economic nuclear weapon. But for the product it's horrible! It is literally the government stepping in to say you cannot improve your product.

Maybe LLMs are legitimately useful products that will have value in most people's everyday lives, but most people will have their expectations completely off. And their intuition isn't wrong that AI companies are here to make their lives worse.

Apocalyptic talk has been a major driving force in politics. Witness the focus on Israel and the high level of nihilism that has crept into leadership positions.

If you viewed "1984" as apocalyptic, it was both a prediction and a warning that held off "1984" until recent times.

Some is "good" if it tempers the extreme hype and bubble. It's no secret where we are on the Gartner hype curve.

Of course, the doomsayers are all wrong

until they aren't

We have come close on occasion, and look around you to see various Twilight Zone episodes being played out IRL.