Yes so of course my actual opinion is a little more nuanced than this. I absolutely see the uses of AI, I won't deny that. I just fundamentally disagree with the way it is being used right now (by which I mean the gas-turbine-powered datacenters it requires, the noise pollution they create, the unethical/outright illegal acquiring of training data.

If you're using a local model, whose training did not deprive actual people of huge amounts of water or electricity, and did not use stolen data, I'm all for it. But most people aren't, they're using ChatGPT or Gemini or whatever Microsoft is making.

Continuing your analogy, this would be like flying rockets manufactured by the third reich, not other companies using the same technologies.

Will the Tesla be the next Beetle?

The main difference is that rockets are expressly for the purpose of murdering people, so I would argue that the research shouldn't be continued or done at all.

Fortunately I'm pretty sure that people developing these computer programs are serious about trying not to murder people - even if just for legal reasons.