A Very Specific Point About Those Who Claim To Make Artwork With AI

Let us be clear about one very specific point: You did not “write” a creative work with AI. You did not “create” a visual work — video or still — with AI. (1) No matter how skillful and refined your prompts are, you did NOT create it. You do not get an ounce of credit or pride for what an AI/LLM spits back out. Not because of the ethical or environmental or copyright issues — though those all still exist. It’s so much simpler than that. You did not create that artwork. The closest analogy is that you just commissioned it. You asked for it, perhaps even “paid” for it, but you did not create it any more than Pope Sixtus IV painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. No matter how skilled you are at writing prompts, you do not get any more credit for the output than someone who commissioned artwork. Literally nobody says that Pope Sixtus IV painted the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. Mostly because it was Pope Julius II who commissioned it. The fact that you probably didn’t catch that I…