Right... So back to the topic discussion rather than adding extra shit... Someone taking pictures and putting it through AI... There's no problem. They own the rights to that photo and all derivative works (except for any cases where it outright violates a law, peeping tom/stalking/etc...). Public figure or not.

After that it can get gray (but I never brought sale or commercial AI use as a thing... Not sure why people assume I did). But it's quite rare where a sold picture cause a photographer problems. Even if the subjects didn't necessarily consent.

Some other countries might have problems with that and have different laws on the books. But at this point in the world it's really not hard to have a shell company in a territory/country that doesn't have such laws... Then it no longer matters again. Good like finding the photographer to sue.