The difference is that AI conglomerates societally accepted perspectives on concepts and presents those based on the words you input. MSPaint requires you to directly portray your own conception of those concepts instead.

Wankery over the nature of art side, the issue is fundamentally one of automation and use. These companies do not want to use AI art the way you use AI art, they want to fully automate the artistic experience of portraying one's own concept out of reality entirely, because it is cost-ineffective. You really think these people are thinking about their prompts or whatever? Nah, execs are just going to use it for marvel slop.

Yes, our current conception of art is problematic and ableist. We put far too much stock into what some random old white dude thinks is objectively good art or not. But I think that's the root issue with a lot of these AI models- They substitute actual artistic decisions with pure, automated, technical skill.

You drawing a single squiggly line will be far more artistic than anything an AI model shits out based on socially accepted definitions. No one is coming after you. Instead of defending the usage of a technology that will directly harm millions of artists, and the automation of the creative process, the manual execution of which, which regardless of how you're doing it is generally considered important to human health, we should go after the insane and outdated concepts of artistic "quality" that ended up making people not only think that AI art is "good", but also that people with IE aphantasia or shaky hand's can't produce "good" art. Of course they can produce good art... Art isn't about correct lighting or perspective or whatever the fuck, it's about one's own desires and creative expression. This is why I get a sinking pit in my stomach whenever people make fun of AI art's depiction of hands or whatever. The problem isn't the AI's technical mistakes, it's that it doesn't care about what it's doing!

AI Art CAN be a tool for this. It could be used fundamentally similar to synthesizers or song samples or collage art or any number of automated processes that are merely used to create actual art. If you have aphantasia and you want a solid reference, that's an amazing usage for AI art. If you have shaky fingers and need to use ai art directly to generate linework for painting, that's also (IMO) a fine use for AI art. Even just posting flat out pictures generated by AI could be art, if framed correctly, sort of how people can remix or use 1 single sample in ways that are interesting.

The problem is that it's trying to replace the creative process of interpretation, and threatens the complete death of the creative sector. This is blatantly horrifying and is something we should not support.