At least with anything AI there is something that anyone can use hands-on for actual legitimate work. Crypto/NFT failed to materialize any benefit beyond anonymous payments for drugs and other contraband.
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/04/05/debunking-bu...
> Ordinary person: “Your weird Internet money sucks to use. It’s slow and expensive. I lost my coins by mistake and it can’t be fixed. If I get hacked it can’t be fixed either.”
> Bitcoin advocate: “But everyone wants [list of ideological aims held only by weird people]! Everyone I know, anyway.”
Crypto often had to invent new pyramid schemes from whole cloth, so it was easier for people to see the grift for what it was. Whereas AI is slotting into the long-established pyramid scheme of bullshit jobs, and just pushing out a growing number of human operators. It's harder for us to perceive the ultimate pointlessness of much of AI's current application because we have a vested interest in believing our own role as humans amounts to something more than it actually does.