The real profit is the friends you make along the way.

I think one usage of "profit" is "making money" and the other is "benefitting from".

"I feel I'm benefitting from the AI hype train although I'm not making money from my projects."

Sorry about that, bad wording. I meant that I'm benefiting from it.

I mean, something a bit more quantifiable is being able to put stuff like this on your resume. Every company wants "AI experts" right now, and if you have a successful project using AI that can land you interviews.