If I make a drawing of a character someone else created, in someone else’s style, have I stolen their artwork?

If I draw Gordon Freeman in John R. Dilworth’s style, what have I stolen from John?

I’m not really saying it is, I’m just unsure where that line is.

Modifying existing artwork to make something new has always been a thing.

Is there a point where Photoshop might become too easy to use and then anyone using it is no longer an artist?

One could certainly argue that creating anything of actual value with AI does require a certain level of skill. That skill may be less of an artistic one and more of a technical one, but software developers also have value, even when the tools they use make it much easier than it was in the past.

I guess what I’m getting at is while I agree with you there’s a large gap between having the skill to create art yourself with a paintbrush and coaxing an AI into doing most of the work for you, I’m not sure it’s so black and white and the line is only going to get blurrier.

People said the same thing about CGI, and look where we are now.