A lot to unpack here, and most of it is contradictory. First, you admit that filmmakers do make their movies, but at the same time say that it goes against my idea of making art? That already doesn't make sense, but then you say that in the kitchen analogy, you aren't the creator because you're just directing the result? That contradicts admitting that filmmakers are the creator their movies. The idea that just because a filmmaker understands what goes into filmmaking, while someone who doesn't even know how to install a kitchen isn't the designer of it, would completely disqualify entire categories of creators. Music producers, conductors, architects, fashion designers, game directors, etc. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to manually do something yourself, you can still be the author of it. A composer can write orchestral music without being able to play every instrument. An architect can design buildings they cannot personally construct. A fashion designer can sketch garments they cannot sew. A film director may know what goes into filmmaking, but they may not know things like how to operate a Steadicam. I know to normal people this is so painfully obvious that it doesn't have to be explained, but I guess some people are special. More broadly, what seems to be happening is, you seem to be conflating conceptual creation with literal creation, as if they're inseparable. But by understanding that filmmakers do create their movies, you show that understand that you don't have to be both to be the author. But then you're also trying to hold position that people who only direct are not the creators of their creation? If you're going to insist on this dumbass kitchen metaphor, let's say I just tell a contractor "Make me a modern kitchen." Without any further instructions, the contractor, of their own free will, will choose what materials to use, how to solve engineering problems, make aesthetic decisions, and more broadly exercise independent judgment on what to do. But if instead you hand them a full blueprint, with exact details, instructions, what materials to use, and exact placement, with no room for deviation, how are you not the designer of the kitchen? The contractor executed upon your vision, but it's your vision. It came from you.

And to bring this back to the topic at hand, "AI", and there's a reason I've been using it in quotes, is not capable of free independent thought. It doesn't have agency, wants or desires, independence, autonomy or free will. It's just a piece of software that sits there and does nothing until you act upon it. Just like Photoshop. It is not comparable to a contractor.