AI art in Substackposts

Any of my other illustrator friends feeling a bit sad/sick/annoyed at seeing more and more AI generated “illustrations” being used in Substack posts?

I understand that it's easy and, if you're not making any money from your Substack you won't be considering paying for visuals (though you can do so quite cheaply, if you are so inclined and do think about what you are prepared to pay for and whether you might add original art in there).

But, if you need free visuals there are actual people out there who create photos and illustrations and allow people to use them for free through Unsplash and Creative Commons and the like. If you use and credit them, you are still supporting a creative.

And if you are making money from your Substack, please consider licensing or commissioning illustrations and photographs from fellow creatives, rather than computers and the massive corporations that are pushing their ‘services’.

I get that some people are finding their own creative satisfaction from being able to tell an AI to run out something that they don't have the skills to draw or create themselves.

But writers, please consider how you would feel if you were seeing much of your Substack feed being written by ChatGPT. You’d probably feel worthless and scared for the future of your creativity.

Please think twice before clicking that AI button.