Sewing machines still requires a human to operate.
Here I disagree.
Is there shit AI art? Yup.
There is also shit 2d art.
There is shit 3d art.
Firstly, it took tens thousands of human hours to create an AI that can take written prompts, interpret them, and then generate something.
Secondly, any new person with a new to them tool is going to put out lackluster results.
Your artists didn't just wake up one morning with the magical ability to create art. They made a shitton of shit in order to get where they are today.
Same with people who are using AI to generate art. When they start, they are shit. As time moves on and they learn how to properly express their vision so that an AI can get close and then having the AI regenerate and revise areas of art and then make final adjustments using Photoshop, Illustrator - the art gets much better.
So much better that some AI generated art has won awards against humans and then the people behind the prompts had to share the actual creation was generated by AI.
A significant amount lf human labor is required to make a T-shirt. The process is nowhere close to being automated.
Not at a manufacturing facility.
For your artists, they have all the things they need to make their art... Except their effort.
For manufacturing tshirts, starting with thread and fabric - one person at the fabric roller computer, one at the cutting computer, one at the stitching computer, one at the stacking computer, one at the packaging computer can create 10s of thousands of shirts in a brief time.
Your comparison falls short.
Just one person can spam millions of images a week
Millions? No need to use hyperbole.
Unlike shirts, which have a resource, time, and skills cost, there is no limit with AI.
This is fallacious and you know it. There is time, skills, and resources (electricity, computer, etc) for AI generative art.
On a single day, I can make thousands of AI illustrations.
And they would look like shit. Just like drawing a ton of art by hand in a day would also look like shit.
You're blaming the tool for the person's lack of training, practicing, and talent.
These are terrible arguments you are making.
I am neither an AI lover nor hater, but I'm going to be honest about the process.