AI is art theft and I immediately unfollow if I find out an artist is using it. Non-negotiable. Also annoys me because I had someone I considered a friend throw in my face they can just use ai instead of paying me for my art.

Ew oh my god the audacity your "friend" had...

Id say it depends to that level of usage. To get, lets say, reference pose and such is fine in my book (for this can be done by just regular image search, but it just more streamlined). To get almost finished thing and then paint over/correct AI mistakes however is not

generative AI is an immediate hard NO for me, regardless of how/what its being used for and the person's skill otherwise. id rather see crude mspaint stick figures made by a person over computer-generated slop any day :')

i think it's fine! technically, things like photoshop / clipstudio / etc use AI. it's a tool just like digital drawing tablets are tools. i don't see training data sets as "theft" any more than looking at photography or going to a museum to look at art for inspiration is "theft". i understand most people's knee-jerk reactions to AI art, especially artists who are afraid of the economic implications, but i personally think (especially as most people don't understand how these AI tools actually work) the pushback is largely reactionary.