I don't know who else is making this argument, but I do think it is a reasonable thing to expect this trend to continue regardless of specific technological developments.

This is completely consistent with a historical material analysis. Imagine thinking you'd prevent porn by erasing Photoshop and Windows Media Player from existence. Heck the first porn video? You'd have to go back right to the creation of video itself.

The internet would have developed regardless. Artists would have found ways to promote the sexual tendencies of the prevaling culture regardless.

Of course it doesn't mean fighting for moral beliefs is wrong either. It goes without saying it is ok to fight for the world we believe in. We can make a difference here and there sometimes. But at the same time we have to be realistic about the outcomes.

Unfortunately imo the left discourse over AI art will be completely ineffectual. The real way to regulate it doesn't even begin to tackle the real problem. Legislation over plagiariazing copyrighted content? Sure it will help the artists so it is a good thing, but it wont stop the tech.

You can make it illegal all you want, someone will make a github project, worst case scenario a MEGA or torrent link and share the program anyway. It doesn't matter how many liberal institutions and how many laws are passed against it. And you know from a PR/corporate standpoint it is never going to be as toxic as child porn or as threatening as copyright law given AI will be a benefit to capitalists. So the chances of it ever getting banned are near zero.

You mention deepfakes as a problem and yet Hollywood already adopted it and profited from it, it is one of the best examples of modern tech adoption, going from niche YT videos to extreme mainstream use in a few years. How can you ever hope of fighting this now? It is all going to be moral outrage into a vacuum.

I picture it like that Blizzard shit take "dont you guys have phones" when trying to defend a mobile game. This time it would be a Hollywood executive, you ask him "you know deepfakes are used for illegal porn right" and he will answer "but don't you guys want to see young Harrison Ford as Han Solo again?"

Unless we go fight the real source of the problem it is pretty clear this wont change anything. You can even try and win a few battles e.g stop plagiarizing from artists, but it wont stop the trend or the tech.