> LLMs have been able to train new AI for a while now.

I admittedly am not an expert, but I don’t think this is true? At least not in the “AI is building itself” sense, which is how I interpreted it.

> I hear similar from professional clothing photographers who find that even if they want to support the human models, they're forced by economics to use the GenAI models.

That, too, is a job that's gone. I used to know some actress/model/waitress types in LA. They'd sometimes do catalog modeling: "OK, the next one is the blue sweater, and hurry it up, we have thirty more to do before lunch".

> I hear similar from professional clothing photographers who find that even if they want to support the human models

Nobody bans them from paying those models some kind of aid. Oh, they mean they want to support them with other people's money. Yeah that's not so easy.