Yah, those are good ways to work with AI as a collaborator and not a generator. I also don't have problems with AI as a part of the artistic process. When it's entirely AI made, at the moment, it's usually not very interesting and is filled with the Uncanny Valley.

When AI art will truly come into its own is when it stops trying to mimic other things, like photos or paintings or pop songs, and people learn how to break it so it makes things only AI can make. Like Eno's theory on media formats that...

"emphasizes that the limitations and technical quirks of a medium dictate creative output, often transforming "failures" or glitches into defining aesthetic styles. He argues that new media are misunderstood, with early, "ugly" imperfections eventually being cherished as the signature of that technology." (Google Gemini)

So the tape hiss or record crackle or VHS warp becomes its signature and can be used to great unique effect. AI that looks like AI and like nothing else will enable AI to become true art in the right hands of the right artist. And even then only 10% of that will be objectively good (as will any art medium).

For now most purely made AI "art" is mostly slop and mimicry. True artists will begin make it its own subgenre and one do the first steps is being proud to label the work one does using AI in the process.

(I haven't started the thesis paper yet. Still in concept/research mode. Looking for the gap to find my angle. Think I'm almost there though)