The main thing that AI art is going to do is flood the internet with millions of more images. Not that it wasn't crowded enough already. Now we image creators will have a ton more competition as it relates to keeping people's attention while they're on their phones. Which has become the battleground of the attention economy. Especially for still images. We've also seen the major image sharing site, Instagram move away from still images and towards video. Probably one reason I keep making videos is because of the interest they generate towards my work.
But. I'm not worried about AI art toppling painting any time soon. There's a hand made aspect and of course the connection to the artist themselves isn't something that's going away any time soon.
The thing I do think nobody is talking about though is how AI art will relate to the personalization of imagery. If someone wants to make a nostalgic vision of their childhood mixed with contemporary characters that's no problem.. However, their ability to do so, and the strength with which these AI images will resonate with them means that less people will be looking at paintings. And this will extend to all of the arts. It's the personalization of art itself. Music created for someone specifically. For me it could be a chip tune stoner rock band all created by AI. This will also extend to film, where one could create a cast of characters, and an environment, and create endless stories within their own universe. Imagine world building at the level of any major franchise, and then imagines millions if not billions of people all creating their own worlds to exist in. When this happens, it will be interesting to see where the. Role of art in people's lives fits in.
Humans have loved collectibles for a long time already, and collectibles are also rarely logical. Whether it's a Pokémon card or a classic car. The function of the item itself is Secondary to the Nostalgia and feeling the objects emits. In this respect I think people will always feel a need for the hand crafted in their lives. After all, people still collect albums, and cassettes and at a an increasing rate. When they could just stream the same song for free.