Yes, art is a product. Usually it's only the person creating something that cares about the creative process. If I commission a picture of my fursona, I don't care about the artist's process, I care about getting a picture that fits what I have in mind. If I listen to music or watch a film, I don't care how people got together to make it, it has to be entertaining. There is a process to everything, even mundane things like fixing a car or growing crops. There's no reason appreciation of a process should be limited to art; Buddhist monks will tell you all about that.
I feel you're also doing a bit of bait and switch. AI isn't replacing our leisure activities. When AI is used to do art, it's used to create those finished products. That's what you want, the process is often an annoyance. To use the oft-repeated quote, "I don’t enjoy writing. I enjoy having written." (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/10/18/on-writing/) There's absolutely nothing about AI that stops people doing whatever creative pursuits they want for leisure. It doesn't even stop them doing it as a business.
The fear that AI will lead to just bad art is also unlikely. That is premised on most human-produced art being good. It's not. A lot of art, music, film etc just sucks and its made by people that just suck at making it. You've reviewed plenty of films, were they all good? Obviously not or there'd be no reason to bother reviewing them. The human aspect of art is overrated. People can find beauty and meaning in looking at the view of a mountain or looking at the stars. None of those are made with conscious intent or by any artistic process, just deterministic, physical processes. If there is beauty in those, there will also be beauty in AI generated content.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Come on, this is mostly romantic nonsense.
Yes, art is a product. Usually it's only the person creating something that cares about the creative process. If I commission a picture of my fursona, I don't care about the artist's process, I care about getting a picture that fits what I have in mind. If I listen to music or watch a film, I don't care how people got together to make it, it has to be entertaining. There is a process to everything, even mundane things like fixing a car or growing crops. There's no reason appreciation of a process should be limited to art; Buddhist monks will tell you all about that.
I feel you're also doing a bit of bait and switch. AI isn't replacing our leisure activities. When AI is used to do art, it's used to create those finished products. That's what you want, the process is often an annoyance. To use the oft-repeated quote, "I don’t enjoy writing. I enjoy having written." (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/10/18/on-writing/) There's absolutely nothing about AI that stops people doing whatever creative pursuits they want for leisure. It doesn't even stop them doing it as a business.
The fear that AI will lead to just bad art is also unlikely. That is premised on most human-produced art being good. It's not. A lot of art, music, film etc just sucks and its made by people that just suck at making it. You've reviewed plenty of films, were they all good? Obviously not or there'd be no reason to bother reviewing them. The human aspect of art is overrated. People can find beauty and meaning in looking at the view of a mountain or looking at the stars. None of those are made with conscious intent or by any artistic process, just deterministic, physical processes. If there is beauty in those, there will also be beauty in AI generated content.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~