I don't care what others do for a hobby and it doesn't affect me. But photography is not a hobby for many. It is a profession and their means of income.
If National Geographic sent a group of photographers to cover the war in Iraq, do you think they would accept images from the photographers if they just sat at home and generated them on their computer?
If a magazine or newspaper was sponsoring a contest for photo of the year and you submitted work, would you be happy if someone won with an Ai generated image?

I really don't think many on this board *do* consider AI generated "images" to be "photography." Personally, I welcome another tool to use creating upgrades to my work (my call here, no one else's, the result could suck when looked at by other's). When reacting to a comment, or event, I usually step back and think about what's been said before committing to typing a response...but that's just me. ;0) Watch the Kelby vid and you'll see a few uses that may fit into *your* workflow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63xd7qu83FU&t=1710s

I don't care what others do for a hobby and it doesn't affect me. But photography is not a hobby for many. It is a profession and their means of income.
If National Geographic sent a group of photographers to cover the war in Iraq, do you think they would accept images from the photographers if they just sat at home and generated them on their computer?
If a magazine or newspaper was sponsoring a contest for photo of the year and you submitted work, would you be happy if someone won with an Ai generated image?

A thought provoking question, to be sure. I see this as similar to the question of where the creativity and skill are in being a movie director. The costumer selects the clothing; the director doesn’t. The camera people take the shots, not the director. The editor puts the scenes together. The effects people create the explosions. The set designers make sure the background is suitable for the 18th century or outer space. There is skill in all these efforts, and a failure in any one can reduce the movie’s impact.

But the director has the vision and works to bring the best out of all these other disciplines. In photography or digital art, without the vision, it’s just another flower picture. It may be technically perfect, but it may also be boring. You may argue that using AI is not photography, but for some people, the photography is not the point: creating a compelling image is the point.

I enjoy going out into the world (or into my living room or whatever) and taking compelling photographs to the best of my abilities. I then enjoy taking those photographs and making interesting, beautiful, gritty, confusing, abstract, concrete, or emotionally impactful images out of them. Sometimes that’s just up or down on a few sliders. Other times that’s a complete transformation of the image content. I will happily use whatever tool helps me execute that vision.