Everything anyone churns out is ultimately derived from human works. I know that 2+2 = 4 because my teacher taught me that. I can read Hegel and understand it because both he and I read Kant. The corpus of work created by humanity collectively builds on itself.

When you listen to a song on the radio, there has been an infinitely long chain of influence that goes back hundreds of years.

Everytjing is built on everything else. AI isn't fundamentally different. It's just done automatically by a mathematical model.

In my opinion instead of trying to prevent this technology like a neo-luddite we need to be looking at new models for our creators to survive. I'm a big fan of the Patreon model. We don't have to use Patreon of course (and we shouldn't)

But imagine a world where all content is free and people with money choose to support the creators they enjoy. Even a dollar or two when done en masse would be enough to sustain someone's lifestyle and reliably reward them for work.

We need to think forward and not act like conservatives. This technology isn't going away. It's simply going to accelerate and break a lot of things while it picks up speed.