I've been surprised at how many people will happily hand over their detailed financial data to Plaid. I can understand how many people might not know how sophisticated malicious actors can be with it, but everyone has heard of identity theft at this point and having someone taking out credit cards in your name is a huge pain.

I think you're only reinforcing the contrast. Yes databases are massivly useful and have been self evidently so for decades; and yet, none of the current outlandish AI claims were ever made about them. VCs weren't running around 30 or 40 years ago claiming that SQL would cure disease and usher in a utopia.

Yes LLMs are useful and might become vastly more useful, but the hype:value ratio is currently insane. Technologies that have produced like 9 orders of magnitude more value to date have never recieved the hype that LLMs are getting.

Cybertruck sales drop by 50% in 2025 Q1

On top of that even the official guidelines are ridiculous. Statements along the lines of saying that people should be treated equally regardless of skin color are officially grounds for rejection.

The notion that the private sector largely runs on merit really falls apart the more one learns about how high level decision making is done.