This is a really good opinion piece. I have some reservations that I'm sure you share; I think a human should be manually choosing the prompt every time, for example, and we may need to introduce a more rigorous publication requirement, both to deter the equivalent of patent trolling with copyrights. But on the whole, I agree, and it's really important that this be said right now because the witch hunt against AI art is in full swing. Vigorous public debate is good, but I've seen people getting mobbed on Twitter and Reddit who were only suspected of AI and hadn't actually used it, researchers harassed for perfectly normal research that wasn't even producing allegedly copyright infringing work, teenagers being sent death threats because they used AI art tools to make images about speculative evolution - yesterday I saw yet another person comparing AI art to the Holocaust. The tone is incredibly toxic right now and it's really good to see sane and reasoned debate about this. For the sake of clarity, there are also people opposed to AI art or opposed to it being copyrightable or only in specific circumstances who are being reasonable, and I have no objection with the way they're talking about the issue.
