I feel like they are confounding LLMs AND general AI/ML. The latter is useful in many areas, while the former is mostly hype imo.

AI exist since the first Chess Bot. Naturally due to the limited HW power in these years, AI applications where very limited. It bcame presenz with the current computing capability, thousends of times more powerfull, see the differences between the PC only the last 25-30 years, nothing to do. even a current low cost smartphone is way better as an high end PC from 15 years ago. It's currently a hype with more than 10.000 AI apps and a cpmpetition between developers and big corporations, with users which abuse it with and for crappy results without common sense, as toy instead of an tool to help in the tasks as it should be, and not for substitute the own work and research. Reason because Bandcamp ban all music made with AI, to protect the artist and their work (https://lemmy.ml/post/41786760). As Example what i mean, it is not the same to use AI to help in a task, as writing aprompt an let the AI do your work, your painting, your music, your research, to sell it as own (mostly without even contrasting it)

here are just a few

• https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/ai-predicts-nuclear-fusion-plasma-failure
• https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3332736/central-china-ai-telling-humans-how-build-high-speed-rail-tunnel
• https://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/18/c_138795661.htm
• https://www.newscientist.com/article/2511954-amateur-mathematicians-solve-long-standing-maths-problems-with-ai/
• https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/115855840223258103
• https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/ai-program-plays-the-long-game-to-solve-decades-old-math-problems