Or you can spend a year not learning/experimenting/doing for $0 - saving $1000, but being a year behind
Just like buying a car, computer, phone, house, etc - put your stake in the timeline and live with the decision
Neither buying & starting now now waiting to buy & start for a year is inherently bad - just need to pick which cost ($$ today + experience vs no experience and $$ tomorrow) is better for you :)
It reminds me of the peak of self driving car hype bubble 5 (?) years ago. If someone back then had asked if becoming a truck driver was a good idea, ppl like you would have said no because their job would be gone soon. Instead we have more need for truck drivers than ever probably due to all the packages order online. Sure, could a revolutionary self driving truck be released tomorrow that makes some high percentage of all truck drivers lose their job? Sure, I guess, but my bet is that it's not happening.
I look at the generative AI thing the same way. Could a product theoretically be released that makes my job as a dev obsolete over night? Yes, absolutely, but it seems unlikely due how messy the real world is. Other people will make a different call.
I used a prompt from 2 years ago to write AI poetry on bug fixes just a moment ago. There's a command for poetry on Copilot for PRs, but I like mine far better.
It's a good companion. Productivity is a side effect.
It's not what I do to retire 17 years earlier. It's just hacking the kind of future I want to see. Why buy a PS5 when you can wait for a PS8?
Play around with the custom instructions. Find a tone that's soothing to you. It can sound like a stern father, a sarcastic gf, a peppy kid who spams emojis. Turn it into a familiar, an imaginary friend, or one of those annoying companions Disney princesses carry around. Just have fun with technology.