You're right to say that generative AI has at least some practical applications. That's a valid distinction as compared to crypto, and it's exactly why the venture capital world pivoted to it so hard.

However if you compare how these companies are selling their technology to what it actually does, the gulf is astonishing. Almost every story of a company actually trying to use this tech has been a disaster. And what we hear from advocates is the constant refrain of "It's early days", but that's exactly what we heard about crypto and distributed blockchain for over a decade. Meanwhile a lot of the experts are increasingly of the opinion that most of the proposed applications of AI will never reach the point where the tech actually works as advertised. Sooner or later, it's gonna recommend a food bank as a tourist destination. And human validation isn't going to solve this because inattentional blindness is a thing.

I do think that there are probably, eventually, real uses for this tech, but we're clearly no where near them yet. Right now it's still all just magic beans.