"AI art is stealing" is an oversimplification of "companies are stealing unlicensed user generated content to create a commercial product" which is absolutely true. Nobody grants commercial use rights to their output by default, you have to ask for that.
Nobody cares that humans learn in principle the same way as AI. Law - which is meant to protect and help individuals to foster healthy competition & innovation without disrupting the social order + prevent monopolies - allows that.
Large corporate entities should not be allowed to use that unlicensed content the same way. That's it. That's the whole point. Content was stolen to create commercial AI products.
Stealing is a particular legal term of art though.
I can't and won't deny people's feelings on the matter, but if we accept them as true, then they do seem to be using the word "to steal" in a novel way.
