> it is widely recognized as incredibly good, few artists can do this as well, probably none can do it with comparable range
I very much disagree. Pretty much any halfway decent artist (say, anyone able to at least caricature recognizable people) is able to produce this kind of imitative art, when/if they are aiming for this type of copying. I've seen nothing coming out of SD that I couldn't expect to find on DeviantArt, at least if I commissioned it specifically. Most human artists of course don't do this, since people usually don't like reproductions (apart from posters) or copying others' style. Note as well the huge problem SD has with consistent fine details (especially text, but also often hands and even faces).
Of course, I fully agree on the speed factor (and would add scale/cost) in which SD without a question is far beyond humanity, obviously. That is a meaningful difference that is very likely to affect markets like decorative prints and other low-value art.
Perhaps this basic disagreement (which is of course ultimately subjective, unless someone is going to do a blind taste test) explains the difference of opinions for the rest of the points.
I'm assuming that you disagree specifically that few artists can essentially create derivative art (i.e avoiding plagiarization but being clearly influenced by artist X or paying homage to artist Y, etc.) as well as top SD models. Well, what about a blind test: https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvmvqm/an-ai-generated-artwo...
Now, sure, winning just 1 contest isn't going to settle the matter but I think it provides reasonable evidence that SD is heading to elite quality at a rapid pace. Above, the submitter Allen was responsible for directing and cleaning the results so deserves credit. However, Allen is also using a year-old MidJourney model that has likely improved dramatically already.
It seems uncontroversial that even if SD models aren't in the top-tier of imitative/derivative art (or "art from text" as that genre evolves) right now, they will be soon.
I very much disagree. Pretty much any halfway decent artist (say, anyone able to at least caricature recognizable people) is able to produce this kind of imitative art, when/if they are aiming for this type of copying. I've seen nothing coming out of SD that I couldn't expect to find on DeviantArt, at least if I commissioned it specifically. Most human artists of course don't do this, since people usually don't like reproductions (apart from posters) or copying others' style. Note as well the huge problem SD has with consistent fine details (especially text, but also often hands and even faces).
Of course, I fully agree on the speed factor (and would add scale/cost) in which SD without a question is far beyond humanity, obviously. That is a meaningful difference that is very likely to affect markets like decorative prints and other low-value art.
Perhaps this basic disagreement (which is of course ultimately subjective, unless someone is going to do a blind taste test) explains the difference of opinions for the rest of the points.