This is the main reason why attempts to say that these sorts of AI are just glorified lookup tables, or even that they are simply tools that mash together a kaz

This is the main reason why attempts to say that these sorts of AI are just glorified lookup tables, or even that they are simply tools that mash together a kazillion images together are very misleading. A kazillion images are used in training, but training consists of using those images to tune on the order of ~5 GB of weights and that is the entire size of the final model. Those images are never stored anywhere else and are discarded immediately after being used to tune the model. Those 5 GB generate all the images we see.