Did I just read a comparison between a mechanical operation and the creation of art?

Driving is absolutely an art, and if you have ever heard artist tall about techniques, you'll realize that there is a large amount of what you'd consider mechanical operation. The viscoelastic properties of acrylic paint aren't based on feeling and subconscious expression. :-)

A large part of the practical application of art is mechanical skill. Some people have an active imagination but have not trained sufficiently to bring forth what they see in their minds eye.

sometimes worse is better, people are perverse

Art is not the same bracket as machine work. Art is a cultural expression and experience. It’s not about who churns out 3000 paintings the fastest, otherwise some speed painters would have won.

I can highly recommend the book “But is it art?” By Cynthia Freeland to get a better perspective on this topic!

There is a whole lot of artistic work that is done in fairly mechanical environments, game dev in particular is what Im thinking of, where you need a couple of lead charicters and then a bunch of extras. If you can generate the extras with AI then suddenly you have a substantially reduced need for artists.

I wonder how much this applies to other fields, corporate art and imagery for sure, but also a whole bunch of the low cost illustration and commission work I can see getting completely gutted, with the existing space for an entry level human to build from is no longer worthwile.

That’s more applied arts though, not free arts. But I agree with what you are saying otherwise. In the short run I don’t see any big chances, but overtime it’s going to be another tool. I guess curation becomes an even a bigger thing than before. We already do it with information (to some extend at least)

I mean countless books are being written each year and quality still need to be curated (or trash promoted with lots of money)

And churning butter isn't?