A sincere attempt to take everything I've learned here into account. Credits for resources / advice go to @Yukosuno | @EldritchTrash | @TheOtherSider | @SourCherryJack | @dretalake | @misterbright | @TreasurePlanet -- and likely several I forgot to mention. Sorry! (edit: added some more peeps)

This was inspired by trying to calm people's nerves over machine-learning generated content. I recently told someone to "get on top of the beast" in terms of conquering fears over ML generators, and then realized I didn't have much to back this statement up ;). So I said, time to bash all of the things! And made this... creature.

Here's how this was made:

• Character / heads / fire / armour from scratch
• Trees generated with Photoshop
• The far-background was generated by https://www.craiyon.com/ -- and then clone-stamped into something that fit the environment (ish ;)). I used ~5 images from this generated content and did not copy-paste anything.

"AI" is a misnomer. Stop using the term. It's machine learning. "AI" doesn't exist. Without a human being to interpret the output of these systems, there is no art. Good luck getting even the most advanced thing to generate something like this. I've only got less than 1 year of experience -- and if I'm not afraid, you shouldn't be either.