Setting aside the usual arguments on the anti- and pro-AI art debate and the nature of creativity itself, perhaps the negative reaction that the Redditor encountered is part of a sea change in opinion among many people that think corporate AI platforms are exploitive and extractive in nature because their datasets rely on copyrighted material without the original artists’ permission. And that’s without getting into AI’s negative drag on the environment.
It’s always been that “there is little new under the sun.” Whether it’s math, science, or the arts, the “new” is all built on what went before. It’s all just incremental and very often what was old is now new again.
AI might be good a copying, but the desire to create and destroy is a human drive. It will remain and find a way.
People will always want to create, but if they can’t make a living creating, that’s going to put a roadblock in their artistic development, because they won’t be able to dedicate themselves to it full time.