Evolution is search. These projects create demand for high tech manufacturing, this alone is a net positive. The money isn't burned in a pit, it is spent employing people.
When I see all the bad verbal reasoning being spewed around LLMs it becomes easier to understand why so many people think these LLMs are intelligent.
Non rigorous reasoning is at the root of the problem here. AI hype is often indistinguishable fro AI slop, because those who believe it are also not very good at demanding and asserting rigor.