I spent all day doing 3D art, and got paid for it. And also the next 4 days (yep, working through the weekend.)
It comes down to producing art that someone wants to pay for, and that starts with the concept, the idea, and the execution.
So - determine what you can create, that others want to buy, that the machine cannot do. Take it from there.
I see AI art generation as a threat to a relaxing, time consuming hobby […]
makes time-intensive leisure activities less feasible in a future UBI society […]
How?
the ultimate goal of AI is to basically make EVERY aspect of human living obsolete, even sports/pursuits of human physical perfection
What?
I think that you should fully embrace any new technology advancements which might save you drudgery. For example, all the wonderful “Blender add-ins!”
But: "There is no ‘I’ in ‘AI’! It is simply a sophisticated application of pattern-matching. It definitely has genuine practical promise for practitioners, but it will never replace you.
SDXL texture Lora with pixel checkpoint give decent results
The best base model for textures that I’ve tried is Flux NF4 with IMG2IMG workflow, it gives consistent results.
If we consider virtually the entire “history of motion pictures,” we consistently recognize (and give Academy[etc …] Awards® To" the people who broke ‘the rules.’" Without these people, “the industry” would never have advanced.
Well, meanwhile, there always was a lower-strata “we gotta grind these things out” aspect to the media industry. In various ways, "all available […]-time must somehow be filled." Nobody remembers these films, and nobody ever will. Actors and actresses (and everybody else …) ground through them also, because they somehow had to get paid.
“Waitaminit!!” Here’s the perfect avenue for “AI!” 
But – my point is actually serious.