Gonna be unpopular here but here it goes anyway.

The promotion of free thought and "using your brain" was a remnant of lies told to you in your childhood. We are (correctly to a degree) associating this with AI because it is the current evolution of working class control. However, it is not unique in its goal. You are an adult now. You are seeing the reality of living under a capitalist society and what it rewards. It rewards serving capital. You were supposed to stop thinking after you entered the workforce. As your parents and grandparents did.

Your parents and grandparents experienced this in similar ways. Sometimes the carrot and sometimes the stick. But, we romanticize the past so we focus on previous generations "having it easier". And, again, there is truth to this, clearly. The material conditions of the current and upcoming generations have declined. But, this is only because the ruling class of society has grown more confident in their ability to distract and corral it's laboring class.

For no generation in recent history have we been encouraged to "use our brains" or "think freely". That was all nonsense they told you while you grew up. There was just a lot more carrot previously than there was the stick. The bread and circus was better maintained. So, there was really no reason for most of population to keep thinking. They accepted their single family home and ignored the few that suffered.

AI is not primarily used to keep you from thinking. No, the systems that existed before it worked and are working quite well for that. It may have that side effect and it's welcome for the capitalist class. But AI is meant primarily to empower "the stick" with constant surveillance and control over each and every individual that dares to ask what happened to "the carrots".

AI is more about the ruling class being able to say "yeah, you can see how things are. But, you can't do anything about it."

And they're wrong. Their confidence will be their undoing.

OP, your feelings of alienation are not unique to living in a world of AI. They are just being allowed to be realized without any distractions because of the degree of hubris that AI has given the capitalist/ruling class. It is a good thing in a way. Allow it to give you clarity and class consciousness where your parents lacked. It is through this class struggle we can free ourselves from this alienation you are describing.

Edit: Appreciate the upvotes. Have been use to downvotes anytime I try to explain why AI feels so awful. It's not just AI.