AI is a perfectly fine name for it, the term has been used for this kind of thing for half a century now by the researchers working on it. The problem is pop culture appropriating it and setting unrealistic expectations for it.
The most annoying part is that the guy who doesn't believe in the spikes is the one who's closest to being able to pull himself off of it, if he were to try. His spike doesn't protrude beyond his chest as far as the others.
Also how are they speaking when their lung cavities have been completely filled with spike.
Yes, that would be preservation. I don't think they'd have ever got in trouble for doing that, even if it was technically a copyright violation. Probably not even if they had some sort of limited "lending" system so that rare texts could be read by the few who were interested in them. The problem came when Internet Archive flung their gates wide and let everyone download freely, at that point they became a piracy site and got hammered like a piracy site. That's counter to their goal of simple preservation.
From their perspective, someone just moved into their house one day and when they objected they said "let's compromise, you can keep half of the house." No wonder they rejected that compromise.
Unfortunately we're now a couple of generations past that initial event so it's a lot more complicated at this point.
Indeed, those slight distortions are a surefire clue that this art is a witch!
The AI image checkers are of course great evidence and never return false positives, but just to be sure I'd like to see whether the image sinks or floats when thrown in a pond.
Another fun fact; the Red River is very prone to spring flooding because it flows such a great distance north. The headwaters thaw out and start flowing while the river's outlet is still frozen over. Many cities and towns in Manitoba have dikes around them and turn into islands during the spring flood. Winnipeg has a flood diversion canal to guide the floodwaters past it each spring.
I think I just ran out of fun facts about Manitoba.