LRC freezes when accessing any AI functionality - started after an "Update All" selected in AI Status. PS AI works fine

Is this a bug?  After editing several images successfully - which included using ai masks and updating the ai settings - on one image I clicked the ai status  "update all" and Lightroom Classic (v15.5) crashed with an unknown error. All GPU setting had been on Auto.  Since then, the system freezes and eventually shuts down every time I try to use masking or any AI process whether or not GPU acceleration is on/custom or off. Therefore, I surmise it is not a Graphics Card issue (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop GPU 32.0.16.1088, 8GB).  I have tried updating the graphics card, doing a clean install of the graphics card, uninstalling / reinstalling LRC, adding NVIDIA Studio Driver, and even disabling the secondary intel graphics card that came with my system.  Nothing has worked!  My Catalogue is fine and my system meets all the recommended requirements.  Someone please help.