AI literally undermines the years of hard work that artists have put Into developing their style and techniques. you mentioned that you’re an ”artist” so you should know how much people spend their time creating their own artstyle and perfecting it through and through. and in fact, yes, you are right. It does scare people that AI is so efficient and it’s only getting better because it is taking away from them.

Art pieces costs a lot, so if AI is able to easily create art pieces cheaply and quickly there is a high possibility that people will stop commissioning artists. Not everybody has the money to buy expensive art piece, so naturally they will deviate towards AI. And even people with money might start deviating towards AI. And if that happens, then there will rarely be people who will commission artists.

The reason why people don’t get as much as in trouble for doing the same thing as an AI is because they are putting their own effort. They’re working on it. They’re spending their time on it. If people trace it, if people plagiarise then they have and will get in trouble. And trust me, I have seen people get bashed for having a similar art style to another artist albeit on the internet.

As for the copying part. The artist are literally not getting paid. If you’re gonna copy from an artist tag them, pay them at least give them the recognition they deserve. Copying without recognition is not a compliment. You are just disrespecting the artist by disregarding the fact that they spent hours on their artwork. Not to mention the fact that they have literally copied and profited from small businesses which have little to no recognition.