>I would argue that pirating something you had no intention of buying anyway is absolutely fine since you were never a potential customer anyway
Thing is, if you knew that you could get something that, functionally, based on your assessment, meets every requirement you want, without any cost attached, did you actually have any intention on spending money to get that something in the first place? I guess it would sort be like how you saw a promotion for a new movie that's come out, and decided to wait on an available torrent to watch it. Although that does raise an interesting thought: if you saw an artist who does commissions online, and you know that you can make a local StableDiffusion model based on the images they have posted online "for free", did you actually plan on paying them in the first place?
I don't know where I was going with this, actually

>I'm an artist and the only things I have against AI is that most of the time they look bad, lack anything that makes them stand out and are often dumped in the thousands to the point that searching for a particular image online gives you more AI generated images than not
That is a problem I've also encountered. One thing I can compare it to is if a billion images from Gacha Club were released on the internet, and search engines were unable to exclude them (>>144251). One thing I've kept in mind is that: the person posting this AI image thought it was "good enough". That's not to say that whatever they made is "bad", but more "I don't like it". It can be frustrating though, if it's more difficult to find something you like using a search engine as a consequence of mass uploads of AI images.

>my currency is people's replies (nothing is more pleasing than a thread I start with a drawing of mine full of replies and contributions, believe me)
I believe you, because I'm also partly guilty of the same thing

>I interpret it as stating that pirating adobe products is something that everyone SHOULD do to punish adobe
So I am guessing that's based on someone finding the company messing with their software in a way they don't like (or the subscription payment model), and wanting to exert pressure with the goal of stopping them and undoing their changes to the software suite

Since you're an artist, what are your thoughts on tracing and references, and copying an art style/pose/color palette? I've only heard of this second-hand, but apparently early Deviantart used to have a trend where users accuse each other of "stealing poses and brushes".

>I think art created to be a tool or commodity (corporate art, commissioned art, art that serves a purpose like as public signage or a software's UI) isn't really all the special
>now, art as expression? that's something different. art that is born out of passion and a desire to convey one's own heart to others is irreplaceable: no one who is seeking out that kind of art will ever be satisfied with AI, and AI can never replicate it to begin with (having no thoughts or feelings or self to express).
I've found that the problem appears to be that (in English at least) the word "art" is used to describe both of these things, and people keep flaming each other when their definitions don't align ("its not real art bcoz it haz no SOULLLZ!!!").

>and if you acknowledge all that and decide that you're gonna make art without concern for the money, then I think that you're awesome and worthy of respect (if not money).
I agree here. Extreme respect for deciding that your hobby is for you and not forcing it into a job that doesn't work or a job you'll hate (In a way, you are your own commissioner and client )

>one thing I can definitely agree on though is that we'll need to find a way to filter out the low-quality stuff from the internet, because we're gonna get flooded with it no matter what happens. it's bad now but will get worse. (;ﾟ∀ﾟ)
Have you noticed a decrease in the quality of search engine results starting mid-2024? I honestly believe Google used to be more reliable in 2014. But yes, I would like the option to filter out AI images, just like how I like having the option to filter out SFMs, Minecraft and IRL images if I so choose.

It doesn't help that people making AI images don't like tagging them as AI because of the massive risk of mob brigades on the internet.