I honestly think crypto (as a currency, not an investment opportunity) has real useful potential. A non-government controlled form of money that can be used internationally and privately is actually really useful. Problem is everyone started buying into it as a pyramid scheme investment instead of buying into it for its value as a form of currency. Blockchain has some other uses too, I know some privacy focused apps use it for syncing user privately.

AI also has great potential, it can do things that were otherwise not possible with modern tech. It's definitely not as efficient as the other methods, but that's a moot point when regular computer systems aren't capable of something and an AI system can.

Biggest issue with both is that they're a technology that's suited to specific things, but the "all-in on crypto" or "all-in-on-ai" approach is wasteful and causes a lot of problems along the way.