>A friend of mine trained an ai model to near perfectly mimic his chosen artist's style. He used to commission and give money but now he doesn't have to, now he can print away his anime waifu without waiting


I think, if he didnt care for the artist in some way, and was just using that person as a means to generate pictures of his waifu, the artist is better off in the end.

Some musicians want to make music for an audience thats there for them, not to a bar full of people who want background music.