AI has become a curse word in creative work.

Say it around artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, designers, or performers and the room can divide almost instantly. To some people, AI means possibility. To others, it means stolen training material, eliminated jobs, synthetic performances, disposable content, and a machine impersonating something human.

Some of that fear is earned.

But the argument usually makes one enormous mistake: it treats the tool and the conduct as the same thing.