@dancrescentwolf Some new furs only see the prices for the big ones like Miles and feel like only with a sona they can be part of the fandom and use AI to get one. That small budget artist exists which can make a fair ref sheet for about 50 is often dug deep in the algorithm and some want only the high glossy style pro artists do (which AI uses for their training) - it’s saddening. I always try to find small artist to help them grow a bit.
@tenkoman this very much falls under the 'that one weird friend of yours creating slop for funsies' category
I still judge them for doing that, but besides the general 'they used AI which is pretty bad for the planet and economy etc' part, they're at least not 'hurting' anyone with that. (If this even makes sense)
I'm talking about assholes generated slop - usually parts of a piece, like the background - and then literally sell it like that. Or they use enhancement magic to speed up their workflow 20x
@dancrescentwolf Ok, that is bad indeed - and yeah I read about the slop sellers at Austrian cons - a shame that they stole the chance from real artists to present real craftsmanship.