AI? There’s an awful lot of “not x but y”.

Rationalization and justification are relics of an era where having a convergent discourse was relevant. You had to make claims that the media class would spread and discuss because that's how our societies were organized back then. Today everyone is fragmented into smaller communities so making any claims is bound to displease some of these communities. It's more political expedient to simply not say anything, or to keep trying several contradicting versions of an argument and hoping you can focus on one that sticks (ie the Trump approach).