[jrm4]

No dispute there; and this will get us to what will be the ultimate question: An AI thing, or a human, could both end up with a result that looks like what you're describing. The question will be -- should these two things be seen as different, legally?

I'm fairly certain they should be seen as different, on their face, from a public policy point of view, i.e. I'm presently very comfortable ducking the question of "can they think," and for the present, assume they do not -- otherwise you're essentially saying that non human AI tools are "humans" for the purpose of copyright infringement.