Yes. Honestly, it feels like a witch hunt where every misstep gets you pointed at. (To put it as mildly as possible.)

It's quite sad and tiring to see that on the pro-AI side (not the gullible "AI bros," but the actual users or artists who support AI) there's a genuine attempt at debate or dialogue, while on the anti-AI or "Luddite" side there's no attempt at dialogue, just pure and simple confrontation.

(I think this whole thread sums up the global situation.)

Many AI tool users are simply (well, in my case, I don't know about you) trying to adapt to an ever-changing market.

Yes, technology isn't perfect, and it can open the door to discussions. But nothing that can't be fixed through dialogue. Emphasis on "dialogue" because, as I said before, that's what the anti-AI people don't seem to want.

I'm not saying their complaints are unfounded or completely wrong, but they are taking it out on the wrong people.

Neither AI nor AI users are the enemy. AI is a tool. If anyone is afraid of losing their job in the future, it's most likely that they won't be replaced by AI itself, but by someone who has learned to use it efficiently.

I think the anti-AI stance itself is like shooting yourself in the foot. AI isn't the future; it's the present. It's not only increasingly used in companies/professional, but also necessary.

The problems many artists have with low-quality content, work reused without consent, clients expecting cheap or free work, etc., are valid concerns, but they existed long before generative AI. (And ironically, it's AI itself that could help them fight against that, I don't know, I think.) But I get the impression that they're taking it out on other people's users and work because that's a more "real and tangible" enemy than something abstract like the job market and consumer habits or preferences.

I think many have bought into the idea that AI will do everything with a prompt, and at first it might seem that way, since it's not very difficult for AIs like Dall-E or Nano Banana to return pretty images with a simple prompt. But a pretty image isn't the same as a useful image. A generic landscape image isn't the same as a sprite, a character sprite sheet, or a texture. Just to give a few examples. (This is where a professional's knowledge and experience carry more weight than anything else.)

My advice for artists who haven't yet incorporated AI into their workflow is to try it out little by little. Not so much chatGPT or Gemini; the world of AI tools is much larger and more varied. And there are many that (this is a personal opinion) I think they'll feel more comfortable with, allowing them to use all the knowledge they've acquired over time, just as they have been doing until now.

This is all like the Industrial Revolution, or the rise of the home PC, or the rise of the internet. The world changes; there's no other option but to adapt. After all, life goes on.

so i don't straight up hate ai. it has it's places in things like aiding in research, helping to find new compounds for medicines for example that we would have otherwise missed. it's really helpful for things like data analysis and organization, to help in speeding up tasks that would have taken days or weeks into minutes or hours. 

what it's becoming instead is something for people to use as a way to shove out things that are low effort and low quality by having it generate images, code things, or straight up write for them. i completely understand not having the knowledge of certain areas, i don't know how to code, and my art skills are lacking, to be generous. but even then, i have no desire to bring to life any projects i have in my head if i don't have the skills, or the help from a human to help me put that forward. 

art is inherently human, and how we express our emotions and ideas. to allow a machine to take that from us is just wrong. people are going to like what they like though, and my objections to the use of ai in this way isn't going to close the box; that will never happen. but i personally would rather live and die never seeing anything i want created being made before i ever use image generation. i'll also never play an ai game or watch any media pushed with ai in it. 

ai is a tool, yes. but people are using a wrench to hammer a screw. 

One of the things is, I cannot draw art, and I am in fact terrible at it.

But I have an idea, so I describe the strange idea to A.I, and then it draws it out, sometimes it takes its liberties as long as it exists or its seen it before, and what comes out can be very creative. Having said that, I am aware that it is nowhere as competent as a human, all the walking animations all gone wrong for spritesheets, it can only generate mostly concept arts or stills and even then, the eye expressions are always off or like dead fish

It also ignores instructions. It's not that I don't want to pay for a team to do my game or rp, more like I can't afford to without going all in and bankrupt if the project tanks.

When it generates right, you get really happy, but most of the time, it trips over itself and u get frustrated prompting it again and again XD.

Some of you might say, "learn to draw". My reply to that is, u think I didn't try? Man people laughed at my drawings, or how fat and out of shape sonic was when I did it. I copied pokemon from the pics, and everyone laughed man when I kept those pictures and manga in a special folder though they looked like crap.

I think the part of your post that hit me wasn't even the AI discussion itself. It was the feeling of spending years supporting a creative community because you genuinely believed in it, only to discover that support doesn't necessarily translate into understanding or acceptance when your work falls outside what some people consider acceptable.

Whether people agree with AI tools or not, having your work dismissed as "slop" without any meaningful engagement is frustrating. Especially when you're talking about using AI as one tool among many in a larger creative process rather than trying to replace creativity altogether.

I also think a lot of independent creators can relate to the financial side of what you're describing. Many of us have spent years supporting artists, developers, musicians, and creators because we wanted to contribute to an ecosystem we cared about. Realizing those communities may not see you the same way you see them can be a painful experience.

For what it's worth, I don't think you're alone. There are probably plenty of creators quietly experimenting with these tools while trying to make art, tell stories, build games, and express themselves. Most of them aren't looking for a fight. They're just trying to create.

Even if people disagree with your methods, nobody deserves to have years of effort, enthusiasm, and support reduced to a single dismissive label.