There was a time when in the name of progress people were killed for whatever resources they possessed, others were enslaved etc. and I was under the impression that the measure of our civilization is that we actually DID care and just how much. It seems to me that you are very eager to put up altars of sacrifice without even thinking that the problems you probably have in mind are perfectly solvable without them.
One of the biggest factors in risk of death right now is poverty. Also what is being chased right now is "human level on most economically viable tasks" because the automated research for solving physics etc. even now seems far-fetched.
Da Vinci inspired whole new generations of artists, thinkers and scientists. The net benefit of his existence distributed itself among many others - as it does with any great artist, thinker or scientist. It certainly looks like generative AI has at least in some cases the opposite effect.
Unfortunately it takes time and experience to filter out the hype and marketing but hype and marketing usually acts against good experience. I thought something is wrong with me when a thought came to mind that (early) no-sql really really could use relations. People said I'm silly for trying to make no-sql sql-like.