The artists - or any other workers impacted by AI - will not be able to resist the tidal wave of shittiness, for one simple reason: the corporate world wants AI very badly, precisely to get rid of expensive artists and workers. It doesn't matter to them whether AI is good or bad provided it lets them replace their expensive human workforce.
Unfortunately, in today's dystopian capitalist world, when companies want something, everybody must bow to their wishes and there's nothing anybody can do to stop them. It's sad but it's the truth.
precisely to get rid of expensive artists and workers.
I worked with plenty of illustrators and graphic designers in my time - I'll call them lots of things, but expensive isn't one of them. I'm not even sure I knew one that could afford rent by themselves.
however little they're paid, they'll always be orders of magnitude more expensive than a machine. And the machine doesn't complain, doesn't rest, doesn't get sick, doesn't organize walkouts and produces results immediately.
The work they do is absolutely expensive. My roommate, in animation, gets gigs in the 2-3k range for a few days work as her primary income stream. The issue with paying rent is because they're sporadic. You may have 3 this month and 0 next. So in essence, they're expensive, but rent is moreso.