Well, short answer is no. Let me explain. Saying AI art — for example, text-to-image generation — is stealing is the same as saying that a painter who spent years in art college learning different techniques, including specific genres like impressionism, steals from the impressionists when they create their own piece inspired by Monet’s Water Lilies.

It might sound like an irrelevant example, but it’s actually pretty accurate.

For a human, it takes years of learning to produce a great piece of art. For AI, it takes months of training to be able to generate quality pictures. The process is different, but the idea is the same — learning from what already exists and producing something new.

Yes, it takes much less time to prompt a model than to paint a real picture. But that doesn’t make AI art stealing.

You might say: okay, I get it, AI learns — but it learns on artwork without getting the author’s consent.

Well, when you listen to music on the radio, or look at a painting on the internet, nobody asks for your consent either. You’re learning, absorbing, getting influenced.

And think about it — every artist has their own favourite artist who influenced them most. Pretty often, at the beginning of their career, they try to copy that style. Only after that do they develop something truly their own.

It’s all about the time it takes to produce the artwork — and AI lets you do it in minutes. In my opinion, that’s fantastic.

And here’s the thing: the more talented you are, the more opportunities open up for you every day. AI is just another tool. And like any other tool, it takes time and taste to produce something truly beautiful with it.

I think we’re at the beginning of a new era, where talented people can solo-produce incredible creative work. All it takes is taste and the ability to think analytically about what you’re prompting.

Fighting against AI art — and AI in general — is a losing battle. We might have a period where some conventional artists, actors, and studios fight back, including in the courts. But in my opinion those attempts are doomed, and they’ll fizzle out pretty quickly. Because again — it’s the same as fighting against the wheel, or the internet.

Pretty soon it’ll be impossible to tell whether a picture, video, or song was made by a human, an AI, or some combination of both. And honestly? If the goal is to create something that moves people, and the end result is great — nobody’s going to care how it was made.