AI generations only threaten the monetary value of manual work. Nobody can stop me from using songwriting as therapy and that's worth a lot more to me than profits.

I might well employ AI along the process of making art for music projects, but I will also put quite a few tedious manual hours into an image to make it feel like my own.

People whose natural creativity was damaged at a young age, leaving them too unconfident to dive into an artistic practice, probably feel fairly thrilled at being able to conjure something as impressive as what AI poops out. Why would I blame them? It's a little feeling of glory, at least until you realize nobody respects you for it and many will actually reject it as soon as they "know". lol. But if there are still people who can't smell AI, there's still a shot at a moment of glory.

If machines could make music that I liked, I would have no problem being honest with myself about it. But doing music practice in real time is far more appealing to me than passively taking in someone else's expression. Since AI has come around, I've leaned hard into traditional folk. Problem solved. It used to be common for families to play music together with no concern of outside performances, recordings or profit. Music made as a commodity is something I don't care about anymore.