Crypto didn't do anything.

AI can give anyone the power to make music, art, film, and media without the time, talent, and institutional capital investments.

AI can automate people's jobs and reduce cost structures to accomplishing work and business objectives.

That's the difference, and the evaluation criteria is easily decided by the free market. Did it do a good job? Will it get hired again to repeat similar work? Are more customers adopting it? That's all you need to judge its success or relevancy.