Generation of digital content by an artificial intelligence (AI) generator is controlled through the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for prompts to the AI generator. When a request is received for the AI generator to generate digital content using a prompt as input, ownership of an NFT for the prompt is verified. If ownership is verified, the prompt is provided as input to the AI generator to generate digital content. However, if ownership is not verified, the prompt is not provided as input to the AI generator, thereby preventing the AI generator from generating digital content using the prompt.