I want an AI that can navigate through automated voice response systems and alert me when a live person is ready to talk to me

Kids are smart and can easily find workarounds

Attempting to prevent them from acquiring tech is futile and counterproductive
Politicians like to see everything as a race
Warmongers and defense contractors see everything as a threat that requires more military spending
Cooperation would be a better strategy

...for Apple to be doing AI research

Social media is relatively new, and many people haven't develop[ed immunity
As the extent of lying and manipulation becomes more and more obvious, hopefully people will develop a bit more skepticism

Their goal seems to be to turn the US into a poorly educated, heavily armed nation of religious fanatics

AI research is good, and if something good comes out of the investment, it's a good thing.
The proper use of AI is to help us find answers to previously intractable problems in science, medicine, engineering etc.
A waste of the tech is to use it to create artificial "friends" who will sell us crap we don't need or convince us to vote for evil candidates.

and should be avoided

Old tech is used to make new tech

...but today's AI is not ready, not even close.
Even the best human therapists produce mixed results, and the workings of the mind are not fully understood.
I'm optimistic that AI tools will help researchers more completely understand the mind and that maybe, someday, an effective AI therapy tool will be developed.
Anyone who uses today's AI for serious therapy is making a big mistake. Its only therapeutic use today is for entertainment, as it ineptly and humorously misinterprets requests

While the hypemongers boldly claim that AI will write all code soon, reality is a bit different.
AI demos impress investors and managers by quickly creating simple projects that are similar to existing stuff. The prompts "make a snake game in python" or "make an iphone fitness app" only work because the code is simple and similar stuff exists.
Creating complex systems that work well takes skill.
As for me, I use AI as a better help system. Finding and understanding poorly written or obsolete documentation can be time consuming and sometimes I can't find it at all after hours of searching. AI gives answers quickly. Most often they are correct, and even if they aren't, they point me in the right direction

Run away!

Predictions are hard, especially about the future. While it's true that AI research is making great progress, the hype vastly exceeds reality.

I agree that the days of minimally talented programmers making big bucks are over.

Creating complex, novel systems is hard, regardless of the language used to specify them. Current "vibe coding" works because the code being produced is simple and very similar to code that already exists.

Talent is real. It takes a special kind of mind to be really good at programming. Unfortunately, many people advocate that everyone, regardless of talent, can learn to code and make big bucks. This is a myth. For those with talent and passion, studying CS still makes sense. And yes, I define CS as Computer SCIENCE, not basic coding.

Attempting to prevent them from developing tech is futile and counterproductive.
A better strategy would be close cooperation, but politicians on both sides prefer to call it a "race" that the US needs to win.
This is silly.

"A computer science degree used to be a golden ticket to the promised land of jobs"
It will still have value for the talented who study hard
The days of mediocre programmers making big bucks is over