Another thing I see is that I have seen a lot of non-trivial algorithm applications that are now touted as “ai” stuff,

The underlying problem is that “AI” doesn’t actually exist. It’s a term that has never been used honestly or scientifically. So it can be applied to literally any grift as we’re seeing now.

The better term would be “advanced information processing algorithms”

I agree this is a better term. But a problem is that more accurate/scientific terminology is less suitable for grifting and thus will never catch on.