That's true, but AI models trained on copyrighted images already exist and can't just be removed from the internet, and their output will often be indistinguish

That's true, but AI models trained on copyrighted images already exist and can't just be removed from the internet, and their output will often be indistinguishable from that of "clean" models. What I fear is a kind of legal hazard that would make even the possibility that AI had been used anywhere in a work radioactive. Imagine another hypothetical: I create a derivative work by running img2img on another artist's painting without their permission. Whether the AI model in question contains copyrighted content or not, this is probably infringement. Now suppose that, instead, I create an original work, without using img2img on someone else's art. But, as part of my process, I use AI inpainting, with a clean AI model, so that the work has telltale signs of AI generation in it. And then suppose an artist I've never heard of notices that my painting is superficially similar to theirs--not enough to be infringement on its own, even with a subconscious infringement argument. But they sue me, claiming that my image was an img2img AI-generated derivative of theirs, and the AI artifacts in the image are proof. With enough scaremongering about AI infringement, it might be possible for a plaintiff to win a frivolous lawsuit like this. After all, courts are unlikely to understand the technology well enough to make fine distinctions, and there's no way for me to prove the provenance of my image! If it becomes common knowledge that AI models can easily launder copyrighted images, and assumed that this is the primary reason people use AI, then the existence of any AI artifacts in a work could become grounds for a copyright lawsuit.