For what it's worth, I agree with your statement, looking back on it. It was a comment made quickly between trying to cook dinner.

That said, I think it reinforces the point I made in the second paragraph. It sucks hard that those doubts even crept into my head, or that a deep dive into someone's other posts is now required to be confident somebody actually put time, effort, skill, and passion into a piece.

My apologies to the artist for being doubtful in the first place.

I don't have any proof, but this feeeeeeelllllss AI generated. If they did indeed make it themselves, good on them because it is indeed pretty cool, but I'm honestly skeptical.

I hate that we've gotten to the point where we can't be sure if someone poured their heart and soul and skill and time into a piece or if they just typed a prompt into a text box any more. Really feels like it cheapens everything.

Edit: leaving this up for context, but I no longer feel like it's AI work. My apologies for not digging deeper.