I first dabbled with AI image generation back in 2022 and sprinkled a few such images throughout my worldbuilding project. It was easy to look past all of the flaws with the idea that it was nothing more than a novelty. And I never cared nearly enough about my worldbuilding to pay anyone for artwork of it.
Now that I look back at it, those images are obvious slop, which I've grown to dislike as much as the next person. But recent comments I've seen here and on other sites have made me wonder if my brain has rotted in the same manner that makes some boomers fall for AI slop. There will be videos where the use of AI is not very noticeable to me, but not with deceptive intent. Maybe an illustration to get the point across or a subtle two-second animation. Commenters will very passionately point it out. To be honest, I don't see the creator either paying for the equivalent human work or drawing anything better themselves.
Does it really just look that bad? Is it an issue with what AI and the companies that sponsor it stand for? Theft of real artists' work? Does it change at all if the images were generated locally with the creator's own hardware and resources? What about upscaling images, like I do with old wallpapers so that they look better on new monitors?
I assume what I've just said will attract downvotes, but that was my thought process and I do want to understand where other people draw the line and for what reasons. Should we limit it to quick-and-dirty illustrations, pure novelty, upscaling existing images, a model that only incorporates work if the artist consents, or something else?
I don't know, I struggle to find a single use.
Maybe to make a quick funny thing with seven fingers to send to your friends...? But even then the downside is that these images get sort of normalised and I personally wouldn't do it. At least not now that the novelty is way over and there are fewer funny obvious errors.
As a person who can't draw a circle to save my life, for RPG-characters I thought I'd find use for it, but I actually prefer doing a horrible childish two-colour-crayon-sketch at the table rather than bring in a portfolio of images made artificially. My horrible sketches will become part of the lore we kaugh about.
I know that at work when we had out summer greetings sent out from the CEO, anything anyone talked about was how it was so clearly written with AI and it for sure didn't inspire confidence or pride in the work place as it was meant to do. The same with some project image very clearly AI generated, which led to the whole project being less reputable in the organisation at a ground level and having fewer qualified people conscript to it willingly.
And any project where the creator or images are generated, I'll trust far less than ones lacking images altogether.
I'm sorry if I couldn't answer your question properly.
Edit: I may have to go back to gboard - at least it could spell for me...