Community consensus on what constitutes authorship is based on two elements that are jointly required: a substantial contribution, and accountability for the final manuscript. Both are not able to generate fully convincing arguments against AI co-authorship. Authorship itself is a vague concept, and the unique nature of the AI contribution as an emergent phenomenon between a commons of thought, a subtle algorithm, and the agency of the prompt, is only beginning to be understood. A pragmatic approach would rest on acknowledgement, a practical expression of contributions, and human accountability. (I wish to acknowledge minor contributions by ChatGPT (version 2023-01-09), in response to my prompts, for which I take full responsibility.)
