I don't think any tech has ever been pushed so hard in front of people so fast. People hated facebook for ages but you could just not use it. While these AI features are shoved in front of your face constantly. Google sticks them at the top of every search, reddit sticks generated slop on every page, every SaaS has rebranded themselves as an AI tool with constant popups telling you to use the new AI feature.
Most other crappy tech you could just choose to not use.
Not that I can think of, but the reason I think it happened for AI so quickly:
AI enshittified way, WAY too quickly.
The thing is that all these tech companies are really just innovating new ways to scam consumers into adopting something that's worse for them. They just subsidize the bad stuff and, eventually, have to start bleeding consumers dry.
Uber is now more expensive than taxis, AirBNB is more expensive than hotels, placing an order online is more inconvenient than calling, and on and on. But it took decades for this to transpire. For a long time, these new things were actually better.
But AI was pushed so hard, so severely, that it became enshittified way too quick. And consumers are already on guard after seeing tech A-Z slowly make their life worse.
Is there any technology in recent memory where the greator public has turned so universally against it?