Using AI to generate it is a legit practice because you aren’t wasting an artist’s time on shit that won’t make it into the game.

I’m sure those artist’s would like to earn a paycheque regardless of whether their work is in the final game or not. That’s my main beef with A.I.

Edited: The amount of slack I’m prepared to give in the case of placeholder assets depends entirely on the size and financial backing of the development team creating the game. Am I going to flip out about a small developer with very little money creating their small passion project for using AI because he can’t afford a bigger dev team. No. I’ll wish him/her all the success in the world so that they reach a point where they no longer HAVE to use A.I. to generate placeholder assets. But will I give a billion dollar company slack for using A.I. instead of paying artists? Hell no.

Long story short. If you’re a big company with the money in your couch cushions to pay artists, than PAY ARTISTS. If your a small indy dev just starting out, A.I. placeholders can help you a bit until you can afford proper artists.