you're right that the former is hardly important or indeed funny anymore when we are faced with the latter. these are not going to be pretty times. i fear the worst of the kali-yuga will rear its ugly head soon.

Indeed.

AI is gonna have two effects - it's going to put unoriginal artists out of business, and it'll give the powers that shouldn't be an unfathomable force multiplier in propaganda and misinfo.

I wish it were the case that only unoriginal artists would be affected, but there are so many fragile contingencies that even the better among us with their own IPs will have their legs kicked out from under them. Then comes a deluge of AI art that completely drowns their reach.

I've been around for a long time, and I have seen what even small changes does to art as a commercial organism. From the Conceptart.org days onward into the advent of social media, changing so many faces with how one makes their living from their cultivated skillset. It used to be a meritocracy, now I am not so sure.

Sometimes I wish it would fall - even right now, if you don't include your pronouns that's a net loss; follow Rush Limbaugh and Wizards of the Coast is closed off to you - fledgling artists, even now, don't get the mentorship they need unless they are groomed because those jobs place you under the wing of the best in the industry so it's likely we're in the last days of what might be considered skillful or original.