I think generative AI has incremental utility. You can't half-use Bitcoin or the Metaverse; the idea is nonsensical. Bitcoin moves data around very slowly and at enormous cost, and the Metaverse provides vertigo-inducing VRChat for uncanny valley Mii avatars, but they're only usable if you go all-in.

Even if generative AI is not a gamechanging buzzword paradigm shift it's still useful for making existing tasks easier. Predicting the next sentence is autocomplete for word documents and phone keyboards, and we're already seeing it roll out. Artists who've gotten over the AI backlash can use it for backgrounds or textures, and designers can churn out those stylised low detail corporate-website graphics. Amateur authors on sites like RoyalRoad are already creating cover art and character portraits with AI generators. Millions of horny internet weirdos now have access to oddly specific pornography, and even if the AI gets the hands wrong they can retouch it in Krita.

Probably (>50%) we'll all be bored of it in 20 years and admit the hype was overblown, but I also think we'll see it integrated into day-to-day tasks in a way that Bitcoin and the Metaverse aren't.