Raw LLM Responses

Just throwing my middle ground 2 cents in the ring, I see AI as a tool. Neither good nor bad in itself. I've seen artists able to use AI for reference- "can i see x character in y style" as inspiration, or AI generating a pose to reference which is great (AI however can get it wrong so there is still a need for knowing and practicing anatomy). I've also seen people who hold no interest in drawing being able to generate characters via AI, and know artists who have been given AI art as references by people who are trying to create their OCs and Etc. There are also artists who AI generate land scapes, starry space patterns, and textures rather than getting them off of google in order to prevent and avoid copyright issues (amazing!)! On the flip side, there are also people who like, generate AI images and charge claiming they made it themselves (purposefully using 'made' in a way to suggest they 'drew' it despite not), or others sketching directly on top of an AI art piece which to me is similarly scummy to people who do that with other's work and try to pass it as their own. There's also a MAJOR issue when it comes to people generating "create image in Z's art style" which don't get me wrong, the intended flattery is there but it is understandably very upsetting for many an artist. This might sound weird but- I kinda relate AI art to 3D printing someone else's design verses getting a custom sculpture/figure from an artist. It won't be as accurate as to what you want as a commission would be, but who's vilifying people for using 3D printers- you know? Anyhoo my TL;DR is that digital art is 100% more akin to traditional art than AI art- one involves typing, while the other involves drawing. AI art generation is like many things, a tool to be used. It's important to respect the merrit and effort that goes into drawing- be it traditional, digital, or other, but I don't think it's proper to vilify people for using AI either (I don't see lavender do this as much as I saw a few posts in her comment section).