Most of the problems attributed to AI seem to come from a simpler change: the activation energy for producing something dropped to almost nothing. People can put unoriginal, half-baked ideas into the ether much faster than they used to. Writing a mediocre essay or a derivative blog post once cost a few hours, and that friction kept some of the noise out.
I think of AI like a calculator. A calculator removed the friction of doing arithmetic by hand without deciding how anyone would use the saved time. The same freedom can support deeper work or more of the same.
When low-effort bullshit fills every channel, cheap production explains more than the particulars of the model. Once production gets this easy, people produce more of everything, including work that previously was not worth the effort.