I feel like most people who hate AI really hate the dipshits who monopolized the sector and have been blowing it like a balloon, fooling oaf CEOs and destroying people's livelihood in exchange of profit.
AGI research, if it achieves its end goals, can help us also learn a lot of things about consciousness, creativity, feelings, mental diseases etc etc (along with a horde of ethical problems too...). Moreover if AI was properly used for benefit of humanity to ease the burden of mundane tasks and give people more time for their life and hobbies, it could be quite beneficial. But again we are living in a generation of power hungry, mentally deranged, soulless dipshit CEOs, shareholders and politicians. So maybe some civilization that comes later will make better use of it (provided we don't autodestruct).