I think this is correct. Downsizing has happened many times and is a natural cycle of the business world.

The hype around AI is simply the grifters opportunistically inserting themselves and clueless investors wanting to stop potential bleeding.

Yes but so far many of our technical achievements have allowed us to work more valuably, raising the standard of living for many people. There is basically no plan (in the US, at least) to replace such large portions of the workforce humanely. Are we all going to end up shoveling coal again to generate power to feed the AI?

More likely we end up just producing more shit with the same number of workers.