I've been both a game programmer, and a computer graphicist coveting photorealism, for ~30 years. In my opinion, this is exactly right. Photorealism is and was never going to put artists out of a job. But other algorithms... might. I can't rule it out, but the older I get the less certain I am of where so-called 'AI' is going.
Rather than putting significant numbers of artists out of work, I anticipate AI tools will act as a powerful productivity amplifier for everybody, but especially artists. As the cost of capturing, creating, and altering 3D content declines exponentially, I predict an explosion in the amount of such content being generated.
Individuals and small teams will be able to take on projects that historically have required much larger teams of people working over several years.
I agree. I'm also a long time CGI algorithms guy ~30 years. I can definitely see computer graphics getting swallowed by machine learning / AI in the next few years. The main things standing in the way as far as I can see, are the fine grained control of what the AI algorithm produces, and the resource requirements. But those barriers will fall, or be gradually lowered for sure.
