Can Zero-Edit AI Art Have a Human Author? | A Five-Dimension Agency Framework, Tested Against Case Evidence

Generative artificial intelligence has created a difficult question for contemporary artistic practice: when a human artist conceives an artwork, directs a generative system, evaluates multiple outputs, selects a final image, and does not manually alter that image afterward, who should be regarded as its author? This research article examines that question through the concept of Zero-Edit, defined here as a generative-AI artistic practice in which the selected output is deliberately preserved without post-generation manual modification. This research article does not argue that the use of artificial intelligence automatically produces human authorship, nor the reverse. It proposes instead that authorship can be evaluated through the nature, degree, traceability, and expressive relevance of human creative agency across the production process, using a five-dimension framework: conceptual, directive, iterative, evaluative/curatorial, and contextual agency, assessed alongside the AI system's expressive contribution.