Honestly, I don't know If a band covers a song, they've taken something someone else made. But they've added creativity of their own. Authors rewrite shakespeare. Artists redo the Pear Earing. Some covers can be better than the original. I don't know if art needs to be wholly original end to end.

"Pearl Earring." Dear me. Anyway, my main point was in reply to the OP, where I was struck by "I have no idea how ..." I was trying to say, "It may be hard to know, because it seems to be a career ender to have the conversation." I do think fully AI story submissions are awful though.

Agree art doesn't have to be (arguably can't be!) fully original. Think it's the intention and thought that matters, whether explicit cover version or a song implicitly influenced by all the art that came before. Another interesting point: understanding what came before is important