imo AI art is still stealing. afaik there's no ai models that are fully trained on data aquired with license or consent. the people who make this art (lets call them generators) aren't necessarily stealing, but what the ai models are doing is exactly stealing. They're taking copyrighted works without consent and using that as input for their models which they then sell and profit off of. Doesn't matter how transformative it is its still stealing. Kanye got in trouble for using samples of other songs, sure he's only used a single 2 second line from 21st century schizoid man (and other songs) but he's still stealing. No matter how transformative something is if you illegally use or reproduce the source material its stealing. Say i screenshot you and made you a fat guy in photoshop then used that as my lead mascot in an ad-campaign for erectile disfunction treatment. You'd have a faire chance in court against me for stealing your likeness (and slander, lol). tldr: transformation is still stealing if you don't have permission to use the source material.
I didn't talk about legality once???? - 0 people care youtubers use memes without asking for permission - 0 people care youtubers use clips of other videos (EVEN MOVIES) without asking for permission - 100% of people care if you reupload a video with your face in the corner TRANSFORMATION IS EVERYTHING BRO
