This post was originally somewhere else, but I think everyone should see this.
AI-generated is technically and not technically art at the same time. If it’s used correctly, then yes, it is art. Most of the time it’s not.
AI goes around the internet and steals artists’ pre-existing work and copies off of it, leaving no credit behind for our dear artists who spent hours and hours working on their pieces. Most of the time, the artists DO NOT consent to their artwork being used, so most AI software that generates art like you have in the post above is stolen art.
This is MAJOR art theft, and as an artist myself, I can say that this is stolen, unethical, and should not be used. If you want to make OCs, either you draw them yourself, ask an artist or commission one, or find adoptables on various art sites, a good one is Deviantart :3
I ask you kindly, as an artist trying to support fellow artists to NOT use AI generation for your art, as it truly hurts us.
How does it hurt us? Well, to start, we spend from 3-24+ hours or even MORE, DAYS on our work to post it to the public to please your eyeballs, and the worst thing you can do to an artist is take their work, and steal it, copy it, and make profit off of it such as reselling it, scamming, or AI-generating variations of it. This is a punch in the face for artists, as we just wasted all of our time on something we poured our hearts into.
Plus, artists who take commissions (artists who make money for drawing things for other people) will get less and less commissions since everyone is moving to AI-generated art, where its mostly free, easy to make, and is made within seconds.
A lot of artists will financially crash from this, and a bunch have already. Artists will get less and less motivated by their passion and most likely get sad and/or depressed, and with the lack of motivation, artists will quit, and all there will be is AI art.
With fewer artists, the worse the AI will get. If you keep this up, this is what will happen.
The point is, AI-generated art is terrible and should not be used, and at a little at a time, we can work together to help support your local artists :3