The "internet" itself was growing wildly through the dot com crash, though. That was an investment cycle: more money in aggregate was flinging around to "make network stuff" than there was revenue to be had selling it in the short term. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that everyone wanted and was rapidly adopting a global network and creating new markets.

AI right now is way behind that spot on the adoption curve. We have a lot of very impressive stunts that don't yet seem like "products" or "markets". And we have a lot of ideas awaiting implementation. But it needs to cross that bridge.

I think it's reasonable to assume there's at least one bust/boom cycle to come in the AI world before we get to a steady state.

Yep. The money crashed. But the technology never stopped