One of the unstated upsides to the boom in AI is that it represents a much-needed boost to university and lab commercialization programs. The reason is that for all the flurry of funding activity in the private and commercial markets, the academic and national lab ecosystems have been funding, investing in, and conducting AI research for decades. Going back to the original AI boom of the 1980s (you realize we've been here before, right?), many of the top R1 universities and government labs have been quietly developing AI expertise, even while there was no commercial market. There are hundreds of thousands, if not more, person-years of R&D already invested.
My contention is that after this most recent wave of mania begins to tie down and we see the commencement of the "installation phase" as per Dr. Carlota Perez's work, we'll find that many of the real breakthroughs will be university/lab-derived and not VC-backed.
For those who have been heads-down conducting research and experimentation out of the limelight for years/decades, kudos to you for staying the course. I'm a fervent believer that all good works are rewarded in the end.