Ah, the proverbial silver spoon. Sadly, I never had that luxury. If you look through my comments, you'll notice I'm more at the get-off-my-lawn point.
Also, what happened? Real world wear you down and turn you cynical? It is possible to be hopeful and cynical at the same time. This tech is something new we're seeing: the future is as yet unwritten. r/LocalLLaMa works well, so there's hope even if corporate ai goes kaput.
My generation has been lucky to see a few new things, though we certainly live in interesting times. Moon Landings. Berlin Wall fall. Moore's Law. EU (I have the old coinage to serve as a reminder). Space Shuttles. China and India integrating with the world. Cellphones. The Internet. Digital Photos. Linux. Solar. 3D-printing. Smartphones. Tablets. Bitcoin. EVs. Mars rovers. Asteroid visits. Internet from space. FTTH. MRNA. Gene Therapy. MRI. Ultrasound. Wi-Fi. Mesh Wi-Fi. Reusable Rockets. Cubesats. Selfies from space. Drones. LoRa/LoraWAN. Maglev HSR. And now AI, real AI. Chinese-like Whale Language.
There's hope for the future yet. You can help make it happen right. But only if you leave the cynicism at the door. Can't give up - it's our kids' futures at stake.