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等应用面世以来，生成式人工智能作为艺术创作工具一直备受争议。虽然有人从长期主义角度担忧这些技术预示着一个完全自动化的未来，但更紧迫的是生成式AI当下对创造性劳动的影响。商业领袖已开始用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，认为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，最终得出结论：AI图像生成器涉及一种不道德的劳动盗窃。若此结论成立，许多其他AI应用同样依赖盗窃行为。