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I can sort of understand, because I had a skill that was scarce and valuable, and now it's, well, not. It's a big hit to my self-esteem. Artists are probably feeling the same way. Human exceptionalism is at its end; I've been watching it coming for years, so I could mentally gird myself. But for a lot of others, this just came out of nowhere (especially if they listened to the wrong brand of AI "expert", ahem), and it's hitting hard.
It doesn't make protectionism and knowledge-hoarding the right response, but it does make it an understandable one.
This all goes back to my hobby horse of arrogance and how bad it is. You alone have to be the scarce valuable thing and now there's someone else so you are sad? Oh my god. If cats evolved to suddenly be amazing artists I'd be so stoked to see the cat art. Computers evolved to be amazing artists so I want to see the computer art. If cats evolved to be amazing at math I'd want to see the cat math. Computers are good at math so now I want to see the computer math. There is no other voice or force in western society telling people to stop being so arrogant but it would solve so many problems if we had this as a cultural idea to even a tiny degree.
Did you read my comment you replied to I am an artist and not feeling a big hit to my self esteem if anything I am excited to have new tools available to express things that were completely out of my reach in the past.
You are very much an outlier. The vocal parts of the art community are united against AI.
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