I promise this question is asked in good faith. I do not currently see the point of generative AI and I want to understand why there’s hype. There are ethical concerns but we’ll ignore ethics for the question.
In creative works like writing or art, it feels soulless and poor quality. In programming at best it’s a shortcut to avoid deeper learning, at worst it spits out garbage code that you spend more time debugging than if you had just written it by yourself.
When I see AI ads directed towards individuals the selling point is convenience. But I would feel robbed of the human experience using AI in place of human interaction.
So what’s the point of it all?
As a dm I do this too for npcs and sometimes for pcs if they have a specific concept. Otherwise it takes hours of searching and you always have to settle, nothing is quite right. I don’t see an issue with it, no hobby dm can spend money on an artist creating every npc and it’s not feasible to expect it. This way I get high quality art if I’m willing to put the effort in to sorting and correcting images through repainting. Especially since I run a campaign set in feudal Japan. Orcs and kobolds in japanese traditional garb is not very common! Ai even let me run an encounter of a fashion show by providing the players a bank of images to curate a collection from and compete with other collections I made using ai.
I still spend money on patreon for monster tokens and maps and I doubt that would change even if ai could make good ones. I pay for their creativity and concepts not just the art.