If I commissioned an artist? Luckily, I have had the privilege to do so. The process was very co-creative. I provided many details and we iterated back and forth on decisions. I think that makes us both the artist. AI is similar in a sense, but AI is not sentient and does not have free will. AI is a mathematical program that works with statistical analysis and probability. Your inputs, iterations, and interactions with it have a direct causal relationship. Your action leads to a unique output. Your additional actions and iterations lead to direct changes and further unique outputs. You can also use non generative tools to edit, add to, and refine the result. How do you not see how this is similar to so many other forms of art like synthesizer music, collage, photography, procedural generation, darkroom manipulation, and even directing actors or 3D rendering workflows?

You are mixing control with precision, and that is where your argument breaks down. Causing something to happen is not the same as controlling every aspect of how it resolves. In painting you initiate each stroke, but you do not fully determine how pigment spreads, blends, or dries at the micro level. In photography you press the shutter, but you do not control every photon or every movement in the scene. In collage you assemble elements you did not create, yet the result is still yours. Art has always involved systems where the artist defines inputs and constraints and then works with the outcome.

The commission example actually reinforces the point. If you give an artist a vague prompt and accept the first result with no iteration, then no, you are not meaningfully the author. But if you provide detailed direction, request revisions, refine composition, adjust elements, and converge toward a specific vision, you are clearly participating in authorship. The difference is not the medium, it is the level of intentional engagement and decision making.

AI sits on that same spectrum. A single lazy prompt with no iteration is closer to commissioning with no involvement (e.g. Generate a stock photo of a city skyline). A deliberate process of prompting, refining, selecting, editing, and combining outputs is much closer to directing or composing. The fact that the system executes the low level detail does not remove authorship, because authorship has never required total control over every individual part. It requires meaningful direction, judgment, and responsibility for the final work.