I would not like to think of "techno-" pessimism, just pessimism (we are past the point of making a sci-fi distinction between reality and computer-using reality, I think, especially since people walk around using a computer). I personally am not too focused on AGI or existential threats, or the loss of jobs, or the political changes, opportunity for exploitation, scams, AI grifting, misdirection of funding. It would be easy to name that as pessimism as it is just a little bit removed from daily life, you can go about your daily life and really forget about it unless you are ethically/politically or personally concerned.

One thing is obviously immediately concerning though. It is unbelievable how fast ChatGPT has been normalized. Within a year the new people have come to expect something like ChatGPT to always be provided for them, for the rest of their life. Of course people are rushing in to define what that something is, and provide an AI service which people will use/misuse like the first page of Google results. I think almost certainly this new "first page of Google" component of people's thoughts will be abused. Do you think the first page of Google is good and formed by good incentives and empowerment of the user, considering how much of a cultural force it is (Googling something being just a normal part of your thought process)?

(I do have limited life experiences. Anecdotally, I know a high school teacher who has been teaching for almost 40 years. Over time students went from hiding their phone in the back of the class to scrolling through it in class freely, vaguely attempting increasingly simplified homework, and have now jumped on the new cool AI website to complete even basic tasks. This is extremely normal, why would a kid not use it?)