Any and every sort of digital art has always used tools to automate and simplify processes for as long as it's existed. That was literally the entire reason they quit hand drawing every fucking frame.

All of those tools opened up art creation potential to more and more people who didn't have the talent to hand draw.

All AI art does is expand that toolbox to the point that everyday laymen can generate something.

I'm sure there were purists scoffing at digital artist as "not real artists" and now it's the digital artists trying to gatekeep.