Just another example of the right being on the wrong side of history.

Nope I am not "glossing over." Your original statement was an absolute and general one pertaining to all use-cases, not digital art specifically. 

This is what you said. 

And I addressed it by noting that AI Generation for protein structures and for math theorems aren't "slop" because the generators are constrained by ground-truths. Again, there is more to the world than your little slice of it. 

Prompting and generating images and videos is not on the same level as making stuff by hand of course but I don't care if someone is doing the former instead of the latter. If someone enjoys sharing that stuff on social media it's completely whatever to me.

And now you're calling me and other artists insignificant, while glorifying generative AI.

Have fun with data center fumes and even less drinkable water.

It bothers me because they're devaluing actual art and videos, just like Claire Obscura Expedition 33 devalued game design by using AI generated content.

Sorry no.

I am a recreational artist (I do water color paintings, color pencil drawings, 3d modeling and texturing, and some digital drawing with Autodesk sketchbook.) My partner is a glass artist with a fine arts bachelors and art history masters degree who has won awards in a regional museum for his art and was an art teacher. I am not calling artists "insignificant."

I am suggesting you specifically are discussing this topic with blinders. 

Can you blame me? AI generated content ruined my career, now I'm stuck collecting disability benefits and am even less likely to ever afford my own home. Seeing people say anything good about generative AI just rubs salt in my wounds.

I think it is understandable why you have that perspective. Automation is going to hit everyone very hard, very soon. In my paid occupation we don't hire junior people because they're mostly using AI (blindly) anyway, so why not cut out the middle-man? We have only been interviewing for senior level positions because they are able to discern when AI is bullshitting. But sooner or later (probably very soon) senior level people are probably not going to be needed either. 

Having said that, it doesn't help to be blind and ignore the facts as they are. Something like Alpha-Proteo is a great advancement and should be accepted as such. We can say that while also considering that AI is a net-harm when it comes to digital art and for labor rights in general. 

As for owning a home. I make a decent income and can't (or rather it doesn't make sense) to own a home. This is largely because of the housing market in my country - the U.S (and even worse in yours) is a mess where middle-class people use home-ownership as a means of accumulating and storing wealth and therefore don't want to see prices decrease. Disabled people (and everyone really) should be able to have their own living space, secure, without needing to engage in wage labor. Some societies aren't like this (looking at many European countries.) 

You just described a future where there's no hope for human artists to survive. Many of us aren't able to simply learn new skills to move on with the changing job market. Art and animation were all I seriously trained to do, and generative AI ruined my future in those fields. My anxiety disorder only makes achieving more income even harder.

I alluded to societies where one's worth isn't tied to one's capacity to wage labor. There are countries in Europe that have had double digit unemployment rates for decades (i.e Spain) and artists can survive and even thrive. It seems exotic to the Anglosphere because much of Anglosphere's common culture, especially in North America, is rooted in cultural Calvinism where one's means of living must be justified by labor and being idle is looked down upon. Other societies exist where people can create art for its own sake and still live happily with their needs met. 

Also displacement from AI isn't something that only affects artists. My paid occupation isn't in art, but the hiring is way down because of AI. The more people affected, the more likely a solution will arise though. If it were just a problem that affected digital artists, then it would be a lot worse than it being a problem that affects a third to half of all occupations in the next decade (if not more.) 

How do we stop this? All I can think of is destroying AI data centers, but somehow destroying the technology that's ruining the economy makes ME the extremist.

I need AI to die because with all the jobs taken by AI I won't have nearly the income needed to have my own home. I'm in the my 30s, still living with my parents, and when they're gone I may have nowhere to go, all because of AI and the short sighted CEOs who glorified it, even trying to justify it's existence by saying "We're streamlining treatment of severe ailments!".