[cryptozeus]

Good question but its a non starter. Do not look to college, people and phd to live a interesting life. It seems you have few options to explore so why not start exploring them before making a decision.

- look at job boards and see if you find interesting work, apply and see if you get in. You can always return to get your phd if that is not interesting.

- search on linkedin with people who are working in interesting jobs and have phd. Email them and talk about your question, people are normally eager to help.

I noticed that right now some of the AI and ML jobs do require PHD but it’s limited and by the time you finish it may become mainstream. Look into those options.

At the end you make your life interesting by figuring out yourself and not depending on job market or friends.

Last thing based on your words it looks like you enjoy people and want to leave student life then just get into one of the tech company as a researcher where you will get all of that.

Who knows may be that is not what you wanted after all, but atleast you will know.