Since the launch of applications such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, generative artificial intelligence has been controversial as a tool for creating artwork. While some have presented longtermist worries about these technologies as harbingers of fully automated futures to come, more pressing is the impact of generative AI on creative labour in the present. Already, business leaders have begun replacing human artistic labour with AI-generated images. In response, the artistic community has launched a protest movement, which argues that AI image generation is a kind of theft. This paper analyzes, substantiates, and critiques these arguments, concluding that AI image generators involve an unethical kind of labour theft. If correct, many other AI applications also rely upon theft.

翻译：自DALL-E、Midjourney和Stable Diffusion等应用问世以来，生成式人工智能作为艺术创作工具一直备受争议。尽管有人针对这类技术提出了长期主义忧虑，认为它们是全自动化未来的先兆，但更为紧迫的是生成式人工智能对当下创意劳动的影响。商业领袖们已经开始用AI生成的图像替代人类艺术劳动。作为回应，艺术界发起了一场抗议运动，声称AI图像生成是一种盗窃行为。本文分析、论证并批判了这些观点，得出结论认为AI图像生成器涉及一种不道德的劳动盗窃。如果这一结论成立，那么许多其他AI应用也依赖盗窃。