You got a few things wrong:

First, ChatGPT has been the most downloaded app for two years straight, the idea that AI is loathed by the general public is pure delusion, propped up by manipulated surveys and people living in a bluesky bubble.

Second, Big tech wasn't well liked by the early 2020s, that ended in the early 2010s when the NYT editorial board took a top down decision to cover big tech negatively.

Third, the idea that they were innovating before but aren't now is insane. AI is the biggest innovation in tech since the transistor and possibly the only true innovation since the GUI.

Respectfully, download numbers are not an adequate proxy for opinion. The number of companies mandating AI use plays in significantly. There are highly ploarized bubbles of opinion fwiw. In the end, it requires actual controlled polling of opinion to have a satisfactory understanding.

Additionally, I'm not sure how you square NYT coverage being more critical of generally worse behavior as "top down" without a citation, care to point at anything to substantiate that statement?

Innovative, in some part sure. But lately the running jokes have become "Uber, but for $X", which hints at imaginative stagnation. AI has been the largest shake up in a decade (or more), but it is hard for Average Joe to grasp what is changing.