I really really dislike that we're still using the term "AI" for things like image generating neural networks

I guess it is AI in the sense that it's a program that does a thing that computers were previously bad at and was thought to be human-exclusive, in the same way that videogame NPCs are "AI". But it obscures the fact that what's going on is just a weighted average machine. Using the term "AI" is creating the implication that you have made an "intelligent" thing that makes actually new things independently

Which is not the case. It's repackaging the work of thousands of artists taken without their consent. And that applies to things other than image generation, too. And I wonder how much of this is because of the term "AI" itself that obscures what's going on