> Every year or so we hear about new studies that double or halve the age of the universe.

Not any reputable ones. The consensus on the estimated age of the universe has shifted only slightly in the last several decades.

This never actually happens.

Since Hubble launched there's been a near complete consensus on the bounds that were radically reduced down from before. Perhaps you were born in the seventies or earlier? Well before CMB studies and the Hubble telescope launched.

There's just been a ton of science trying to reconcile the difference in the upper and lower bounds that are far closer than they were before. But it's a few billion years, not doubling or halving.

It also depends what one name universe. That universe is ageless is not fundamentally incompatible with a BigBang like event occurring at some point in it.

We also hear that time is an illusion, which renders the whole debate moot anyway.

Every year or so we hear that super intelligence is around the corner and is also impossible, so I'll ignore LLMs entirely until there's new information.