Well, I'd say there is information in language. That's kinda the point of it and why we use it. And language is powerful. We can describe and talk about a lot of things. (And it's an interesting question what can not be described with language.)
I don't think the stochastical parrot thing is a proper debate. It's just that lots of people don't know what AI is and what it can and cannot do. And it's neither easy to understand nor are the consequences always that obvious.
Training LLMs involves some clever trickery, limit their size etc so they can't just memorize everything, but instead are forced to learn concepts behind those texts.
I think they form models of the world inside of them. At least of things they've learned from the dataset. That's why they can for example translate text. They have some concept of a cat stored inside of them and can apply that to a different language that uses entirely different characters to name that animal.
I wouldn't say they are "tools to learn more aspects about nature". They aren't a sensor or something. And they can infer things, but not 'measure' things like an X-ray.
If it's free, I'd get something large as housing. A proper mansion in the middle of the city. And then have a café and community area on the ground floor. Also a workshop/lab like a hackerspace. Then I need one bedroom and all the other rooms get converted into escape rooms. I'd spend the time building them and spend time with people and build silly things. Optional: a bed and breakfast and rehersal rooms. I think maintaining that and baking for the cafe will be a full-time job.