In the case of this kind of AI (which really isn’t but that’s a whole other conversation) the work that the AI is doing has to have the work of actual humans as input, and the people who run the AI aren’t compensating the humans whose work they are using to train the AI. At this point, that’s probably not illegal or even copyright infringement, but it’s certainly ethically questionable. And even if it isn’t, it’s not a sustainable model. These AI’s aren’t coming up with anything original. They aren’t doing what human artists do when they create new art. Humans, of course, also use existing art as inspiration and for ideas and as a springboard to new art. But AI isn’t doing that. It’s literally just approximating existing art. Because it isn’t actually sentient, it can’t add anything new. So…if this AI puts the human artists out of business, the AI art will stagnate at that point. You are probably correct that the machines aren’t going anywhere. But we all, collectively, need to find a way to make this work in a way that allows human artists to keep doing what they do and be compensated fairly for it.
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