It’s more so historical fact. It was denounced for like nearly a century if not longer depending how you’re measuring. It’s similar to AI in that it decreases the mechanical effort one needs to create content but also itself imposes new required skills to develop that content. There’s definitely a hierarchy in AI content and so far at least to myself it’s very clear when there is a person actively trying to create something vs a completely automated content pipeline. I would challenge anyone who thinks all AI creations are nothing but slop to create something themselves equal to or better than some of the better works I’ve seen. Similar to a challenge of a traditional painter to create a compelling photographic composition.

Maybe to add to this I think it’s worth noting the creative demand of designing and training a model. It’s not without inspired thought. I’m curious to see the code as well. Amongst people who program there can most definitely be beautiful and ugly code in the same way there can be a pleasing or unpleasant movie scene or painting.