was talking about this over on hellbird; I feel like one big benefit of AI *is* randomness. It's a way to generate a lot of possible shapes, lighting and camera angles quickly - and then if you knew what you were doing, you could find what you liked in there, tweak stuff, and it'd get you out of your head. Even the "in the style of" part, it'd get you thinking about how whatever artist solves problems.

(The other big benefit is, for non-artists, you'd have a way of generating images at a low level. NPCs for the game you're running, or the equivalent of a thumbnail you can hand an actual artist and say "can you work off this"?)

My perception though (and maybe that's an accurate one) is that this isn't about any benefits someone who's already an artist gets from the tool. Instead I feel it's been pushed as the latest scam, cheap out on paying artists, crediting artists, or developing skills yourself. A way for people with no real interest in art to flog their ego. The *tool* is the okay part here, it's the *everything else* that's an issue.