This is only funny to you because your limited view is that using AI = enter prompt, get result, be done. This is what most people think and what most users of AI do, but there is a lot more depth to making creative use of AI that you don't seem to know about.
One example: You can use a diffusion model as a render engine in Blender, with all the modeling and sculpting and related work, but using a diffusion engine to render the scene instead of a pathtracer/raytracer.
Another example: Composing all pieces of music manually and using AI to create different instrumentation or arrangements of your piece.
Even just prompting and bulding workflows for a diffusion model in ComfyUI to make exactly the scene you want and not just crappy slop requires knowledge and a certain amount of skill. There is a lot of overlap with photography and photo editing, and you have to know how the diffusion process works to get good results. Many casual "no effort please" users want to do it, but give up fast because the topic is complex with a somewhat steep learning curve. Their only alternative is to beg for access to workflows others have created.
It's not all just zero-effort, ChatGPT piss-colored images.
I apologize if I sound dismissive. Some things that can be produced by AI amaze me and I do see your point about being knowledgeable with your tools.
My point is, in general, it seems lowering the barrier to entry has overwhelming produced a lot of low effort things, but also some very high quality things as well (as you've argued). Unfortunately, low effort output dwarfs other things. And on the whole, it seems things are made to be bought & sold, not enjoyed.
This is only funny to you because your limited view is that using AI = enter prompt, get result, be done. This is what most people think and what most users of AI do, but there is a lot more depth to making creative use of AI that you don't seem to know about.
One example: You can use a diffusion model as a render engine in Blender, with all the modeling and sculpting and related work, but using a diffusion engine to render the scene instead of a pathtracer/raytracer.
Another example: Composing all pieces of music manually and using AI to create different instrumentation or arrangements of your piece.
Even just prompting and bulding workflows for a diffusion model in ComfyUI to make exactly the scene you want and not just crappy slop requires knowledge and a certain amount of skill. There is a lot of overlap with photography and photo editing, and you have to know how the diffusion process works to get good results. Many casual "no effort please" users want to do it, but give up fast because the topic is complex with a somewhat steep learning curve. Their only alternative is to beg for access to workflows others have created.
It's not all just zero-effort, ChatGPT piss-colored images.