I finally played around with it with my young daughter a couple days ago for laughs. Now I actually see the point of it.
Yes it's ugly as hell. But it's the rapid prototyping process of art. You ask it to slap some shit together. Nope, that's awful. That's worse, that's hilariously terrible! There is always something wrong.
It's great for throwing ideas at the wall far faster than a real person could sketch them. Especially if that person can't draw, like me. But the finished product is only ever worthy of a meme, not a gallery.
However an artist could easily use that process to brainstorm some ideas. It's like psychedelics but the computer is taking them for you
Yeah, I had to create a logo for a project, threw the key words into DallE-3, generated 30 drafts and recreated my favorite one with GIMP. I wouldn't have been able todo so without AI
I found it's useful for giving you clues on what to do. I'm still learning art myself and once dumped my unshaded work into one to see what it would do.
Gave me some useful ideas that I didn't even think of on my own. Like the fact that I could totally add creases to the shirt or shade it rather easily
Illustrator I can't see going anywhere as AI still makes too many mistakes. At least technical illustrations, that is. For something like a paperback cover or low-end kids book AI already has that market covered.
Concept artist is probably toast for sure. Except in specific Industries like automotive where you need a real concept for development.