I got into an argument with some guy on Zulip about whether or not a pro-AI blogger using AI art is likely to be respectful to artists. Because I don't want to keep engaging with him, I'm not going to reply, but I'll say why his latest comment has problems. He said:
Should we think that a school teacher who needs a cat holding up a whiteboard for a handout has a negative opinion of and respect for Art or artists? Is an 8-year old who is making pictures of Mario for birthday invitations spitting in the face of illustrators everywhere?
The case of the school teacher and eight-year-olds are different because they don't know where the images are coming from and how the models are trained. They don't even know what a model is in most cases. It's no different than clip art to them.
The companies making AI image generators aren't going to tell them. That's the absolute most advantageous position for those companies.
It's possible to respect artists greatly, even donating to them and whatnot, and still want to adorn your blogpost with a picture of a cartoon cat wearing a C64 as a hat while eating a stick of RAM.
This is a case of not letting anything stop you from taking what you want, even though you know that someone else is paying the cost. This is not the eight-year-old that wants a Mario birthday invitation. It's a guy who knows how AI image generators are trained.
Plus, I really doubt even 0.1% of them donate to artists.
OK, I said what I wanted to and do not have to get involved in some months-long back-and-forth.