It's worse than that: the creativity and originality I put in my prompts, it extinguishes, and instead churns out unoriginal formulaic crap. The crap sounds exquisite and realistic though.

The models are primitive right now, but we’re clearly heading toward “AI as sound synthesis, human as artist” - much like how producers currently use a DAW to assemble premade loops and sounds from Splice, but with the producer now able to prompt any sound, filter, or effect they can imagine into existence and then rearrange them into a song.

See for example Suno Studio, which is not very good in my opinion, but shows the direction they’re going.

Where do you draw the line? Do composers create?

It is not necessary to draw a sharp line that clearly divides everything before saying “this is too far” about something that has, in fact, gone too far.

At what point of detail/complexity does my restaurant order transform me into the cook?

Good question. Maybe not cook, but consider someone who picked just the right ingredients and preparation for a sandwich. Combining flavors and textures in novel ways that are as surprising as they are delicious. I would ascribe more of the creative credit to that person vs. the one cutting the bread.

So you are taking the ridiculousness of calling someone a 'sandwich artisen' (slapping together assembly line type products is slapping together assembly line type products) but trying to spin it into a positive label?

Yes.

Does the guy who tells the composer "write a song" create?

No.

The line is somewhere in the middle

How does that work with using a camera to take photos?

You press the button to capture the photo. As you note, a different verb is used. When I order take-out, I'm not "creating" it.

I’m a photographer, I have almost a quarter million photos in my archives. When I take a photo, 90% of it is composition, during which I move around, analyze lighting, background, aperture, shutter speed, exposure and a whole lot of “what do I want to capture here?”

The other 10% is editing, which for me involves minor color adjustments, highlights, shadows, cropping, etc. I make all the decisions.

AI can generate an image based on a prompt, and that’s fine, but I would never, never claim to have created that output myself.

So the only difference is the amount of decisions and iteration. If someone spends 5 hours iterating with AI vs 5 minutes on a photo, which one has the better claim to being a creative work

If someone spends 5 hours communicating with an artist they're commissioning vs 5 minutes on a sketch on a napkin, I think the napkin has a stronger claim to creativity.

Who is the artist? Mr. Brainwash or the artists he hired?

Dragging the camera to where it shall be.

I'm no photographer, but do anyone not have that Sidewinder seekerhead in the brain that gives you the blaring tone when a great composition is in front of you(including 3D off-boresight warnings)?