>>88364162I do think he started as a regular artist but it's so very coincidental that his big improvements happened around the time AI generated anime stuff became available to the public and those improvement are all in the style that makes it look like AI did it.
There are a few examples of artists suddenly getting good (and very AI-coded) with the advancement of AI. The highest profile one I can think of is misaka12003 but we have someone close to the kawaii fanbase that may have had a similar trajectory (if yuno yuno).