This is a very conservative and limiting definition of “artist.” I was always told that anyone can be an artist, even if their work isn’t classically “good.” Now the ladder has been pulled up by formerly inclusive artists. That’s too bad.

OK, to explain. I used to commission artwork to illustrate articles in the print media. We used to pay well and commission about 5 images a month.

These days we’d probably have the office intern tinker with some prompt writing for most of those.

Those people have just lost their living

Same with people that made buggy whips for horses.

Did you have a bad experience in art class growing up? Equating the two smacks of resentment.

They're literally equal as classes for this subject matter.

And that’s fair enough. The original commenter asked ‘when artists would stop treating AI as competition’.

You are just reinforcing the fact that AI is competition.