[ziml77]

Surely there's some point where it ceases being a tool though. We can't both be making AIs out to be comparable to humans while simultaneously calling them tools. Otherwise people who commission art would be considered artists using a tool.

[vasco]

Many many successful artists from the Renaissance until today are not actually artists but just rich people with a workshop full of actual artist they commission works from. The rich person curates.

Many times this also happens with artists themselves. After a point, you are getting way more commissions than you can produce yourself, so you employ a small army of understudies that learn your techniques and make your pieces for you. So what you describe has existed for hundreds of years.

A short list could include old ones like Rembrandt or Rubens and a new ones like Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst.