I'd have to disagree that LLM are a dead end. They aren't actual AI, but they can crunch data at a rate that will make them a bridge to actual AI. I guess I see this is a very dangerous and inevitable stepping-stone.
LLM will be able to crunch raw numbers to make actual AI possible IMHO.
Are you denying that it can be done faster now? And that even if it can't, people with money believe it can and are funding it?
This is moving fast my dude. Look at how fast a term from Terminator made it into our daily lives.