The amount of shovelware is not a reliable signal. You know what's almost empty for the first time in almost a decade? My backlog. Where AI tools shine is taking an existing codebase and instructions, and going to town. It's not dreaming up whole games from scratch. All the engineers out there didn't quit their jobs to build new stuff, they picked up new tools to do their existing jobs better (or at least, to hate their jobs less).
The shovelware was always there. And it always will be. But that's doesn't mean it's splurting out faster, because that's not what AI does. Hell, if anything I expect that there's less visible shovelware because when it does get created, it's less obvious (and perhaps higher quality).
At some point, the quality of uninspired projects will be lifted up by the baseline of quality that mainstream AI allows. At what point is that "high enough that we can't tell what's garbage"? We've perhaps found ourselves at or around that point.
The shovelware was always there. And it always will be. But that's doesn't mean it's splurting out faster, because that's not what AI does. Hell, if anything I expect that there's less visible shovelware because when it does get created, it's less obvious (and perhaps higher quality).
At some point, the quality of uninspired projects will be lifted up by the baseline of quality that mainstream AI allows. At what point is that "high enough that we can't tell what's garbage"? We've perhaps found ourselves at or around that point.