For the same reasons they always have.

The year has little to do with it. The only things we've really undeniably progressed in over the past century are scientific knowledge and the level of technology. Existential philosophy hasn't exactly made breakthroughs recently, to my knowledge.

Each person still needs to find their own answer to the fundamental questions of "why am I here" and "wtf is death and how do I deal with it".

Our mechanical, scientific understanding of reality provides fairly depressing answers to these questions. Religion? Sunshine and roses.

Also, on a more practical factor: childhood indoctrination and cultural inertia. Most people are raised in religion and they find it "good enough", so religion continues.

In the same way that computers are basically advanced abaci.

Don't confuse a simplification made to demonstrate the basic functioning to a layman with how things actually work.

LLM's are neural networks, which are based on a model of brain function. There's little reason to believe that we cannot eventually reach similar levels of effectiveness as human brains.

Hell - reaching the levels of pigeon brains would already be absurdly useful.

Ehhh. I get that exploitative techbros and cryptobros have confused the issue by latching onto the AI bubble.

But at the same time generalized artificial intelligence is very likely possible and will be an absolute game-changer if and when it happens. It's easily of similar value to fusion technology.

And it is already bringing truly impressive results into reality - protein folding and diagnostic medicine come to mind.

Just the chilled, filtered tapwater I carbonate at home.

Ludicrously cheap, the taste doesn't get old, and there's no trash to deal with. 10/10.

What a cool question, actually.

In my current situation? Probably a coffee date with someone new.

In a hypothetical "blank slate" scenario? Some easy way to play music. An mp3 player or something among those lines.

Alternatively - I could absolutely purchase a used dumb phone for that amount of money, as well as free calls within network for a year (in my country).