Generative AI is theft in the same way that cars stole the livelihoods away from farriers.

Actually, it's not quite that bad because it just makes existing jobs more efficient. "Big AI" thinks that it will keep evolving at the same pace as Moore's Law but there's currently no evidence to suggest that's true.

It'll get faster, for sure but that won't make it better. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone's still complaining about AI hallucinating things 50 years from now. It'll just be quicker and easier to re-do the output when it does.

Here's my realistic predictions, based on everything I've actually used and studied about AI (I follow it very closely):

• Every photographer and everyone else who edits photos will be using AI like they currently use photo editing tools. It'll become just another tool in the toolbox. I wouldn't be surprised if GIMP and Krita add a whole menu just for AI actions. In fact, many professionals are already using AI every day.
• 3D artists will also adopt AI to make their workflows faster (god knows they could use it! 3D modeling is tedious AF). AI will be used to rig up models and even to create starter models from 2D images (it'll be a long time before the AI is making decent models though... That are suitable for rigging).
• Animators will be able to work much more efficiently by training AIs with their characters and telling the AI to put those characters in whatever clothes or positions they want. Then they'll use AI to animate the difference between those states. Character positions will become standardized prompts and new animators will have to learn the new "prompt lingo".
• Voice actors will use AI to take on more roles. Instead of being typecast into specific roles based on the sound of their voice(s) they'll be able to change their voice however they want to fit the role.
• Writers will use AI to improve their writing... A lot. There's an unfathomable number of people that have great stories to tell but aren't that great at writing. With LLMs they'll be able to write out the draft of their story and use the AI to make the language flow better. It'll also fix their idiotic spelling and grammar mistakes (that I find in ebooks all the fucking time and it pisses me off! Paste your stuff into ChatGPT and tell it, Please check the grammar! It costs nothing but a few minutes of your time! Seriously: It's a free service. Use it!).

What do all of these things have in common? They're not taking people's jobs.

It's just like any automation that humans have adopted since the industrial revolution. Sure, a company may require fewer workers to perform a task but at the same time that creates new jobs that didn't exist before.

It's the natural evolution of work: As time goes on jobs become more specialized and old jobs go away. It's been like that for a long time now.

Is AI going to accelerate that trend? Yeah probably. But only in the short term. Long term, it will result in more jobs and more productivity.

Aside: I'd like to point out that the rich getting richer is an orthogonal concept to productivity. That's a function of government/economic systems. Not automation or scientific advancement.