I am constantly suprised by the amount of apologizing for generative AI infringement here. The fact that it's already being done and is a technical breakthrough is irrelevant to existing copyright law. "We are big and innovative" may hold weight with legislators, but it won't with the courts.

Remember when everyone and their dog discovered sampling in the late 80's and they all thought they could get away with it because it didn't seem like infringement to the samplers? The courts had no qualms about slapping record labels for putting out records with unlicensed samples in them. Albums even got pulled off shelves while licenses were sorted out.

These companies are charging for a service that returns copyrighted content, full stop. You can't do that whether you are AI or someone drawing Mario and selling the pictures on iStock, or putting out records that sample someone else's work without permission. It took a while in the case of sampling, but it sure as hell happened.