[flask_manager]

I see no particular societal need for people to be formally trained in art production. At least not any more than there is value in horse-riding or kendo. A small number of people able to attempt mastery professionally does nothing for the overwhelming majority of people. In fact it might be better for art to entirely leave the commercial domain, leave nothing but amateur works and hobbyists. If an occupation dies due to having insufficient value to sustain against an automated approach was it really valuable in the first place? While the idea that artists will simply be unemployed instead of finding other work is amusing; the reality is that its more likely that they will find work in some other form, that is now many times more productive due to automation.

[alexvoda]

That was not my point. I agree that maybe art should not be commercial at all. That maybe there should be only amateurs and hobbyists. And I agree that people will just find work in some other form.

My point was that the skill pipeline will be nuked. Amateurs and hobbyists will not have sufficient time and resources to reach the same skill level and eventually there will not be enough amateurs and hobbyists to teach others in a sustainable way and keep the craft going forward. The existence of formal training is important because it provides structure, continuity and certain knowledge is only highlighted in a formal setting. Hobbyists too benefit from networking with professionals.

To move away from art to a different creative field, imagine how the software ecosystem would look if there were only hobbyists and AIs(in the service of corporations creating all of the commercial software). It might be a hobbyist FLOSS utopia but certain knowledge would simply be inaccessible. Say you are a hobbyist and have a tricky question solved by some obscure but commonly thought algorithm, who are you going to ask? The AIs have no reason to spend time on StackOverflow. If an AI can write all software, I see no particular societal need for people to be formally trained in software engineering, yet I think humanity would be worse off by having lost this knowledge.

AIs will be appliances not tools. Like appliances, they will serve their purpose but unlike tools they will not elevate the user in any way. Any skill, knowledge or capability an AI has will be sealed within the black box of AI. This goes against one of the defining features of the human species, the ability to transmit knowledge by encoding it.