Taking still photos of anything is widely considered a creative activity. There's usually only a small amount of creativity involved. Sometimes more. Same goes for AI generated anything. You can have low effort photos and high effort photos, low effort AI generated pictures and high-effort AI generated pictures.

AI just lets you get a better result for less effort (for some definitions of "better"), just as a camera lets you get a better result for less effort than a paintbrush and canvas does.

A camera doesn't produce a painting though. Your comment doesn't make any sense.

It produces an image, just like painting does. It does so quicker and "better" than humans. But it also requires less creative input and allows less creative freedom.

> a camera lets you get a better result for less effort than a paintbrush and canvas does

Only if your goal is photorealism, which is one of the least interesting forms of art.