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?