Probably not the AI companies. Maybe you could say they should be better at marketing and not have a backlash. But, I think that doesn't confront what that was up against.
Maybe the angry public, but that's such a diffuse target it's somewhat useless to allocate blame to them. It's like screaming at the heavens, it won't get you anywhere.
I'd say it's social media that really deserves the blame for the whole situation, and a triple dose of it too.
One dose for continuing the mechanism for spreading shallow, surface level narratives that ignore the difference between responsible use of AI, and slop often created by AI.
The second dose for doing nothing to stop the spread of slop, in all it's forms.
A third dose for repeatedly doubling down on the mechanisms that motivates the creation of slop. "Influencer culture", your "brand", the monetization of attention, and the inlining of advertising to everything.
Who do you think is really creating the slop? It's people desperate for attention, either because they think it's necessary for a career, because of the social desire for it, or, above all, because they want to monetize it as advertising.
If you want the rot at the core, it's all there.