Image generation as a tool inherently steals works and makes them seem new. Traditiional memes (image with caption) are completely different in that regard as there is no stealing. It would quite literally be covered by Fair Use, as you are adding meaning, creating parody or critiquing to the media.
Even modern memes arent the same, because they add something to the source content. They add or change meaning by well, adding to it or editing it.
AI art does not do any of that. All it does is create a congealed mass of stolen art work and references with zero care, and thats ignoring if it even does that well. If making memes and making art is putting together a nice sandwich, then making AI art is buying a can of Spam, and saying you made it.
A wheelchair is not stolen, it is made. An artificial voice is not stolen, it is made. The issue with AI art is how the sausage is made, who gets fucked over by it, and the fact that people defend it as if it warrants the same amount of praise as honing a craft for years.
If people want to learn to make art, they’re not going to use a tool that just does it for them. They pick up a pen, pencil, paintbrush, stylus, and start drawing. I’m a programmer, and I can say I didn’t learn programming by using an LLM, and still don’t learn new things by having them done for me. I learn by trying to do it myself.
All I’m getting from you is that you have no respect for art. Not as a skill, not as a medium, not as a way of expressing ones self. You see it as a commodity, a final product, and that is extremely disappointing. Because at the core the issue with AI art is that it has no purpose. It has no nuance, no true human expression, no soul. An AI Van Gogh will not compare to a real Van Gogh, because there was no emotion put into the final product. No stroke on the digital canvas was placed deliberately, but mechanically, algorithmically, with no thought or feeling.
If you really care about art as a form of expression, I suggest learning and interacting with it beyond the digital space. Go to a gallery, research it, talk to some artists about their art journey. You’ll very quickly understand why AI art is problematic as a concept.