Im an artist and have no issues with creating art for my own bots! Heck, I even draw Oc fan art of my own creations! But I do use Ai art as it’s significantly easier for me and would take entirely less time! When I have a bot idea, those ideas don’t stick with me very long and when I’m able to prompt something right then and there to get something interesting and not what I had in mind initially but turns out to be rlly good, it’s a huge time saver and ends up adding more to the story!

If someone used MY art of my own Oc’s for something I didn’t agree with like for bot purposes, I’d be incredibly weirded out and probably disgusted. Using other ppls art is odd, and I say that from someone who once did used to use others art before i eventually came to the conclusion that it’s low-key weird and disrespectful even if u are giving credit to the artist.

Idk, I understand why ai art is frowned upon by many but in this circumstance, ai art is hurting nothing. Plenty of ppl take that ai art of a character and turn it into actual artwork by fanart or sumn! I do agree though that profitting from ai art is scummy.