But… how do you think the book got into the library? The state buys the book from the author’s publisher. The author gets paid their royalty. This happens with your tax dollars. This is a good thing, the library system allows authors to receive payment to provide a public good, that can educate citizens who can then make a living. Stealing their work to train an LLM to make a living is not the same thing.
If you take a taxi 26 miles you'll get to the finish line first, but you didn't run a marathon.
There is such a single minded focus on the consumption of art in lieu of creation of art in these discussions around AI and I find it incredibly disheartening.
The point of writing is not "I need a page full of words" for the same reason that the point of running a marathon is not "I need to get 26 miles from here fast".
The reason to make art is because it is inherently valuable to us as humans. The act itself makes being alive better for all those who participate.
Building a tool that outputs crummy simulacrums doesn't make everyone a poet, sorry. If you didn't make art, you didn't make art. The act of creation is quite literally the entire point.
Why are we currently obsessed with finding ways to eliminate it?
Finally the inspector barges in and finds Vyvyan with a power cord hanging out of his mouth to which he replies “It’s a toaster”.