Pretty sure they are trying to figure out a way their art can’t be used to train an AI and won’t be willingly participating in making it easier.
We don't see this as binary in the long term. Maybe artists want to release art from a prior period, for example, but withhold their current series until they move to the next.
Who told you you could use the data in the first place?
It's copyrighted. Reproducing any of it is a crime.
In which case it should be fairly simple to challenge it in court, no?
This is not true of the artist market. While yes, many artists get into it for the fun/satisfaction of producing their own artworks, the reason that they can remain in it long term is that there are other entities in paying for the results of their work. See: game studios, film studios, etc. Before AI, the only way to get the assets for these various projects produced was by paying artists/experts for their work. Now, the production of those building blocks can be automated.