The big tech companies of today may be regarded in generations to come like the factories a hundred years ago that had kids working in dangerous conditions. Except this time the kids aren’t making a product, they are the product.
I also think it's a little too easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. For students that are genuinely curious, AI can be a major facilitator to learning. I've seen several students make massive gains in subjects when they can converse with AI and test their knowledge. The key difference is motivation/incentive. If a student just wants to check the homework box and be done, AI is a major net negative. It doesn't have to be though (hallucination problems aside)
I dunno mate. From my perspective Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram et al are all late entries in this game. I recall 'everyone' being very aware of this in the mid aughts as well. But these new, Big Tech networks rode the wave of mobile internet, where phones became the primary and in most cases only device people use. This was the age of scaling. When the voices that are critical are decimated a few times over, the message gets lost. Speaking of Eternal September...
Now everybody is hooked to the Big Tech firehose, so critical voices of AI are drowned out at will. I have a hard head thinking this round will be different. Especially it is the stated goal of Big Tech financiers to take control like this. This isn't just happening...
AI that teaches you? Cool, it is great you learned. But generative AI giving you full essays you can hand in without even learning a topic? It's not difficult to see how this could have negative impacts.