Part of what bugs me about the “cheapness” of text/image generators is the externalised cost not just of labor theft, but of resources. Capital is currently subsidising the generation costs to destroy the labor market for these skills, but the huge chain of resource utilisation (mineral and oil/coal extraction, running the data centre, etc) is just fucking _wasted_ on the most inane horseshit imaginable. What a goddamn joke as we approach extinction.