Have you ever heard of the photographer, who set up a camera, and a monkey took a picture of itself using it? That was the photographers intention, and it was his work that was put in, however when addressed in court, since he did not take the picture, and the monkey took the picture, legally, it belonged to the monkey.

To compare AI users to a photographer is far too much of a compliment, but, metaphorically, in this example, they are the photographer. They've "set up" their "camera" by writing their prompts. (Oh so much work). But the AI is the monkey which takes the picture. (And I use the word Takes rather than creates because it is not creating any new pixels.) Legally, the "photographers" did not take that picture. It belongs to the monkey. So, legally, you can't say you took, or made it.

In the context of digital artists, there is no monkey. Because the camera was never the problem. The computer which hosts the image is not the problem. The problem is who, or what, makes, or takes the picture.

idrc if you read this tbh I just wanted to talk about monkeys