As you say, LLMs have really useful applications. The problem is that “being a reliable virtual assistant” is not one of them. This current push is driven by shareholders and companies who are afraid to be seen as missing out. It’s the classic case of having what you think is a solution and trying to find the problem, rather than starting from a problem and trying to find a solution.
Someone has died due to a touchscreen. A woman had a Tesla which you put in park forwards or reverse with a touchscreen. She’d always had trouble with it and got it wrong and reversed into a pond. That meant the power went out so she couldn’t open that door. To get to the emergency escape handle you have to remove the speakers in the doors. So she drowned.
The kicker? Her husband was a millionaire and he immediately put out a statement absolving Tesla and musk from any wrongdoing.
Unless everybody now says “I’ll never buy anything from dodge”. If it doesn’t impact sales it really will become the new norm.
Musk has an AI project. Techbros have deliberately been sucking up to Trump. I’m pretty sure AI training will be declared fair use and copyright laws will remain the same for everybody else.