I can see some minor benefits - I use it for the odd bit of mundane writing and some of the image creation stuff is interesting,, and I knew that a lot of people use it for coding etc - but mostly it seems to be about making more cash for corporations and stuffing the internet with bots and fake content. Am I missing something here? Are there any genuine benefits?
No one knows the long term benefits/costs yet, but its potentially more empowering to small creators than large ones. Everyone has access to the same tools, and for instance, if it can offload a bunch of work from an indy game dev, that could let them focus more on the part of the game design process they are most skilled at/interested in.
Right, it's a new technology, its usage is being curated. Even once they release a publicly accessible application, it'll be like going to the hammer renting store, you get to go there and use a hammer, for a fee sometimes, you cant bring the hammer home or own it, they regulate what you can work on with it, it can be overused and inaccessible while demand is high, they can discontinue access when they want.
And they can and do give more access to wealthier clients.