So, first: I’m not the person you originally started arguing with; I have no objection to AI art, except vaguely in that is the worst kind of commercial plagiarism designed to steal other people’s work and turn it into profits. It’s like pirating music, but then selling CDs of the copy. Obviously much worse.

But that’s only a vague objection because I’m no kind of artist. I support them and their fight, but abstractly as it doesn’t affect me.

I like a lot of the AI gen stuff. Very pretty, visuals catered to your whims, on demand. Turn that mind’s eye vision of the Dark Tower into a real image, despite having no artistic skill! But I don’t respect it. I don’t think it’s “Art”, anymore than a random Mandelbrot is “Art.” Take that Mandelbrot and paint it using pointillism, and that would be Art.

When AGI comes along, and has an inner world and an imagination, then I’ll start thinking of it as Art.