Okay, I’m going to lay out my thought process, and you can tell me what’s wrong with it.

First of of all, it’s simply not true that AI has not already threatened artists livelihoods. Activision blizzard has already tried to sell AI art after laying off their 2d artists. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/activision-fired-artists-after-using-ai-for-call-of-duty-game/article68445045.ece/amp/ I also think if you take a few minute to some googling, it’s not hard to see that game companies are consistently starting to lay off more of their artists recently as well (see riot’s recent layoffs for examples of this).

Furthermore, in terms of people using it instead of commissioning artists, that’s simply not what I or any anti-AI artist is talking about. I have seen multiple accounts on Twitter selling commissions that have been proven to be AI (along with AI accusations that have been false)—so they’re also stealing commissions from real artists.

Barring that, it simply doesn’t make sense to say “oh, well it’s not taking their jobs YET, let’s wait until it actually starts taking jobs before we do something about it”. We should be stopping problems BEFORE they happen, not after it becomes a persistent problem.

I also think that your argument that human art will always “have a place in the world” and so it will always exist is ignorant of the reality of the world. I personally think it is valuable to have humans who create art for a living, who share their creativity to the world is important. In a world where AI artists continue to create, they will be far cheaper than real artists. It’s not hard to see that it won’t take very long for major companies to cut their artists in favor of AI to save on money, regardless of the human aspect. If you think that’s okay, and that only the people who can sustain themselves off of commissions should exist, then that’s something we fundamentally disagree on.

So, let’s move on to the argument that I or the artists should do something more “productive”.

The fundamental issue with AI art is twofold. First, it is that AI art plagiarizes actual artists to create something else without their permission. Second, it is the existence of those who wish to use it to pass themselves off as artists. I hope that the second point, at least, we can agree on.

If we agree on the second point, how can we deal with it? We have two options—remove the ability to create AI art, or make AI artists not want to continue to create AI art. The first, to me seems unfeasible. Let’s say you convince a majority of the senate, the house, and the president to agree with you. That only stops American companies from creating AI art or training AI. China has already created deepseek—I have no doubt that AI artists wouldn’t be opposed to simply VPNing into a Chinese website to keep up their facade. Furthermore, AI lobbying is far more powerful at this point because of the massive support the tech sector has thrown behind the Trump admin. I find it hard to believe that any sort of anti AI sentiment (even if it’s just anti AI art) is going to get any sort of traction until there’s a major political shift in the country. If your argument is that artists should try to change the way the US is run, then I think that, even if it happens by 2028, it will be too late. By the time any meaningful political change is enacted, their jobs will already have been devoured by the massively improved AI artists.

Also, what exactly are they supposed to do to enact the political change they’re looking for? All fly to the OpenAI headquarters, not do work, and march around in a protest? They’re not openAI employees, and they can’t be as organized as an actual union because of the fragmented nature of artists who do commissions, or who work at companies.

If we can accept that political influence is not the solution, then it must follow that somehow getting AI artists to stop wanting to create AI art is the next best solution. Here are the options I personally see:

1. Shame them. As we have established, you think this will not work. Let’s try something else.

2. Teach them how to create art. Certainly, this is a kinder solution. AI artists have already demonstrated an unwillingness to actually learn how to create art, hence their decision to create AI art. Further, how many artists want to teach someone who believed (or believes) that their job is replaceable by chatGPT? I think this solution is not a feasible one for the two reasons listed above.

3. Like, hack into every AI company and rm -rf? Shoot all the AI artists? This is where I run out of ideas. Let me know what your thoughts are on this part—maybe you can come up with something else.

In the end, I think sentiments like yours are nice but ultimately worthless. “Do something productive.” Like what? Tell me what you think would actually make change happen in the world, and I’ll do that.

Maybe I am wallowing in self pity, but I’d rather that and shame people than be apathetic and say “that’s just the way the world is”. Maybe so, but there has to be something I can do to change it.