[dagw]

Maybe you shouldn't consider Stable Diffusion the "artist" but actually the "work of art". Several artist have been experimenting with 'machines' that can make art for a long time, but it is always the machine that is considered "work of art" not its output.

One such artist is Jean Tinguely. You can go to the Jean Tinguely museum and make a free "painting" using one of his machines, and that picture has no value and isn't very good. The machine itself however is very valuable and is what is everybody (including Tinguely) considers the actual work of art.

The main differences now is that now the machine can produce aesthetically pleasing results.