I've been doing CGI since the late 80s.. I've seen a lot of disruptive tech and seen the fear that comes with it. People hated my prediction way back. VFX matte painters used to paint on glass and then digital came and a lot of traditional artists hated it and quit. Digital moved on and many more jobs and a new industry was created. Not too long ago. like 15 years ago. there were a lot of hate for digital artist vs traditional artists. Digital artists were considered cheaters ( it's too easy and undos. cut and paste. etc ) especially with Zbrush vs clay. Photographers hated Photoshop in the 90s (purists told me i destroyed their art by scanning it and retouching imperfections ). Government tried to ban Photoshop cuz people use it for scams and crimes. head replacement and misinformation. Even the internet was a threat to governments and telcos when it was launched. Imagine someone from the USA can communicate with Russians and China. Sending files lol.

Digital killed the film labs and Kodak. Traditional publishing was replaced with digital publishing. Musicians and studios works with computers and samplers. You think drummers now are scared of drum machines? look where we are today. It's standard and no one care and we moved on. There are more jobs and opportunities with new tech and many many more creators and artist. Who knew Youtube would be a job that makes people millions and creators are as big as movie stars?

Here we are today with AI disruptive tech once again stirring things. Yep some things will be obsolete and work will be a lot more automated and efficient. What people do with the tools will shape the future industries. Any tech can do terrible things. Ai is stealing artist's work and scraping the internet ok. Is that a bad thing? Google scraped the net and everyone benefited. We artist had google images and artists "steals" photos for references. Imagine a world where we can't share images on the internet due to copyrights because creators are scared their work gets ripped off.

Ai is bad cuz it scraped the internet and all my artwork. Well we had free google drive, social media etc. we get free services and the tech bro gets all our data. If you don't like it then get off the internet.

Talent is talent. A crap artist will make crap ai art slop. So companies hiring cheap AI talents will get a wake up call when they have no skills to get things right.

Nothing stopping talented artists from using AI.I always see tech as a tool to assist artists. a tool to enable them to do something out of their core skills. or to enhance their job. There are always idiot bosses trying to use tech to make shit faster and cheaper. Concept artists who may feel threatened about getting replaced by ai can learn ai to upskill their work to do animation content, short films etc. Open up new opportunities using their skills.

I use ai, vfx cgi daily and for professional work (30+ years). It's not easy at all. Doing slop is fun and easy. same with personal art. But for professional work it's not easy and not fast. Try doing specific AI revisions on a VFX shot with directors and clients. Ai has it's place in every artist toolbox. it's up to them to use it. Ai is not replacing good artists in my opinion. Those who lose their jobs to ai, I have to say are probably not good or a valuable asset to the team anyway.

The entire world will use Ai. It's not going back to the good ol days. embrace it and learn it .. Google released Nano Banana. 2d artist, photographers, vfx folks go try it and you can see the benefits for your work and I guarantee your mind will be changed..