I think the reason this is creating so much angst is that it's not really just about the future of digital art as a career. It doesn't take much imagination to see this as the vanguard of what will be coming for all jobs that involve manipulating bits on a computer, which is a huge class of jobs these days, including most of the jobs done by participants on this site.
The rapid development of AI may mean the near-completion of the hollowing out of the middle class. On one side the capitalists who own the machines and data that can do all the knowledge work, on the other the mass of workers trying to scrape by in menial service jobs. What will remain in the middle will be the craft trades that require dealing with complex real world physical problems and thus are still extremely hard to automate (plumbers, electricians, etc.).
The rapid development of AI may mean the near-completion of the hollowing out of the middle class. On one side the capitalists who own the machines and data that can do all the knowledge work, on the other the mass of workers trying to scrape by in menial service jobs. What will remain in the middle will be the craft trades that require dealing with complex real world physical problems and thus are still extremely hard to automate (plumbers, electricians, etc.).