Raw LLM Responses

I'll be honest and say that I have used generative AI (rarely though) to make reference pictures for my projects (when I can't find something specific that I need), but I'm mostly a consumer and I don't make a living "doing art." and I do agree that unless more work/thought goes into a generated image/video, it's pretty "slop"y and a lot of these "tech bro's" excuses are completely asinine. but I want to put in my two cents and mention that I think generative AI is essentially how artists/creativity works at it's core - like, they see things they like (for example, for some people it's nature, so they create "nature art" after viewing lots of nature. for some it's surreal visions so they create surreal visions after seeing lots of surreal stuff, for some it's anime or cartoons, etc. but unless they are "saying something" it remains a "trade") and to me it just seems like a lot of the "AI hate" is coming from people who use art as a trade - it's understandable that people would want to protect their livelihood, but there's just a huge disconnect in the arguments because it all floats around the issue by trying to come up with contrived moral reasons to justify their cause (and it reminds me of when a worker's union goes on strike, anyone else that is willing to continue working are labelled a "scab"). and the fact that huge art/animation companies are trying to protect their IP now from AI is essentially the same reason what these "art as a trade" people have been angry about, getting paid. I've seen artists who say they don't care about what AI is doing because a "real artist's" goal is to create new things, tell new stories and that resonates with me the most.