At what point does using AI mean you’re no longer the creator?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, especially after some of the reactions I’ve gotten while sharing my music. I recently released an eight song Halloween concept album called October Never Ends, and AI is part of how I created it. I’m completely open about that. But something about the conversation surrounding AI creativity really interests me. I understand the legitimate concerns about AI. Copyright, training data, consent, corporations replacing workers, and how these systems are built are all conversations worth having. What I question is the idea that the moment AI enters the creative process, everything the person did suddenly stops counting as creativity. Music has been evolving with technology for decades. Producers can program drums instead of hiring a drummer. We have samples, loops, virtual instruments, pitch correction, DAWs, presets, quantization, and software that allows one person to create something that might have once required several musicians and an entire studio. We also accept singers as artists who may not have written their lyrics, produced their instrumentals, mixed their records, directed their videos, or developed every part of the creative vision themselves. Nobody seems to believe those things automatically erase their artistry. So why does AI? That question is especially interesting to me because I know how much work I put into what I create. I’m currently creating an animated short for every song on my album. I choose to generate my animations in five second clips because that is the most cost effective way for me to work. There are tools that generate longer AI videos, but longer generations can cost more, and when a generation doesn’t come out correctly, you have to spend more credits trying again. So I build my videos piece by piece. I decide what I want to happen in each scene. I create the images. I write the prompts. I generate the animation. I look at what came back and decide whether it actually matches what I envisioned. Sometimes it does. Sometimes AI completely ignores what I asked for and I’m sitting there looking at the screen like, what the hell is this? 😂 Then I rewrite the prompt and try again. Once I have the clips I want, I still have to edit everything. I decide what stays and what gets cut. I put the scenes in order, create the transitions, sync everything to my music, and make sure the visuals actually flow with the song. AI generated the individual pieces, but it didn’t wake up one morning and decide to make October Never Ends. It didn’t decide that I should create an eight song Halloween concept album. It didn’t decide what each song should be about. It didn’t decide how the album should feel. It didn’t decide that every song should have its own animated short. And when I’m editing five second clips together, it certainly isn’t sitting beside me deciding which scene should hit at a certain moment in the song. I am. That is why I have trouble with the argument that using AI automatically means someone isn’t being creative. I’m not claiming that generating an AI animation is the same thing as drawing every frame by hand. It isn’t. I’m not claiming that producing music with AI is the same process as playing every instrument yourself. It isn’t. But different doesn’t automatically mean effortless, and it doesn’t automatically mean there was no human creativity involved. Technology has been changing who can create and how we create for a very long time. AI has lowered a financial barrier for me. I can take lyrics that I wrote and an idea that exists in my head and actually attempt to turn it into music, characters, artwork, and videos without needing the budget for a studio, musicians, animators, video production, and an entire creative team. That accessibility is one of the things I find so exciting about it. And October Never Ends is basically my experiment with that idea. What can one independent person create when technology gives them access to tools that previously would have required a much larger budget or team? If you want to hear what I created, or watch the animated AI shorts, check the comments. But I’m genuinely more interested in the discussion. Where do you draw the line between using AI as a creative tool and letting AI do the creating? And if a person has the original idea, directs the process, makes the choices, rejects what doesn’t work, refines what does, and assembles those pieces into their final vision, are they still the creator? I think they are. I’m curious what other AI creators think.