The Author as 'Auteur'
Recently I have become very interested in utilizing artificial intelligence--specifically small language models--to assist in creative writing endeavors. Hear me out: I'm not advocating for relying 100% on AI's generated text, nor am I advocating for lazy writing. What I am advocating for is the use of AI as a creative assistant, to act as the molder of words. Similar to how a film director is the auteur of a movie, the person with total creative control (the 'author' of the movie), so should an author be considered the 'auteur' of their book.
Does a film director act out all parts in their movie? No. Does a film director write the musical score for the film? No. Does the film director make the computer-generated images and visual effects? No. Does the film director physically operate the cameras, microphones, any mechanical props, etc.? NO!
At the end of the day, even knowing that the film director does not do everything in the production of a film, he or she is still considered the auteur, the author, the creator of the film. Think like this: in writing a book, the actual author can be thought of as an auteur: the AI can act as the sounding board, assist with mapping character relationships, analyze the story for plot holes, and most importantly, it can put the author's ideas onto paper.
The author provides the AI with their creative vision, general plot, characters, themes, worldbuilding ideas, and the AI can take all of that and generate the text for it, doing the manual labor of writing the words. This is no different from how a film director operates: their creative vision is implemented by countless other people, yet they receive credit. So should authoring books be, understanding that the AI is the 'film crew' of the book.