I think it should be marked under the same conditions in which you would credit another artist on whose drawings your work is based on. Is it a close reproduction of an AI-generated piece? You should mark it as AI-assisted. Did you use AI-generated content as general inspiration to create your own unique artwork? No need to mark it in that case.

No. Look, it's reference; as long as it's reference and not a study or copy, no one should care. In the same way that if you pose a 3D model that someone else made, rendered it out, and used that as reference, you don't have to mention it.

To me, pardon the term, but hysteria about AI generated content as some sort of cooties that taints whatever it touches is silly.

AI content generally not art because there is not the same intentionality behind it in an ontological sense, in the same way pretty patterns that naturally occur are not art. You can be inspired by whatever, I'd just call you a shit artist if you trace some AI content and call it your art.

You could argue that it is possible to be art in the same way that guided natural processes can be art, using tools does not immediately make something not art, but looking like art also does not necessarily make something art -- it is an interplay between an artisan and their tools to shape the world with intentionality. I think its just a higher bar to clear with tools that could possibly make some of the "creative decisions".

A case like that doesn't concern me much. If AI has a place in art, it's as a tool like that.

No, though I think the right thing for the artist would be to disclose that the references were ai.

Yes. And photos should also have a disclaimer about what kinds of edits were done, regardless if they were done manually or by AI.

I keep seeing stupid ideas in social media because people believe edited photos match reality.

Most places I'm aware of will mention if AI is used in the creation of some product, whether it is directly displayed in the end result or not

This is like in the 00s when every comic book artist was obviously using 3D modeling software but none of them would admit to it. You can't expect artists to be honest about this sort of stuff because they'd just be putting themselves at a disadvantage to the ones who lie about it. Furthermore, it doesn't really matter, does it

Why not do it the opposite way? Mark all the artisanal hand drawn images with some artisan guild marker that marks their "pureness". If the creator of the image is found to have ever looked at an image made by a mere peasant, kick them out of the guild.