Did you see that there is a word that comes after digital?
A digital artist—that is, an artist whose medium of choice is digital—is still able to make art in other mediums without ceasing to be a digital artist. That doesn’t make the other art digital, and they didn’t claim that it did.
If typing in prompts to generate images from the stolen work of artists makes someone an artist, then so does commissioning art and giving feedback based on how you want it changed. If you’re not okay calling that person an artist, ask yourself why you’re fine with calling AI ‘artists’ that.
Did you see that there is a word that comes after digital?
A digital artist—that is, an artist whose medium of choice is digital—is still able to make art in other mediums without ceasing to be a digital artist. That doesn’t make the other art digital, and they didn’t claim that it did.
If typing in prompts to generate images from the stolen work of artists makes someone an artist, then so does commissioning art and giving feedback based on how you want it changed. If you’re not okay calling that person an artist, ask yourself why you’re fine with calling AI ‘artists’ that.