Text
Human-createdHuman writing and editing
Human and Machine Provenance
A clear way to say how work was made.
Draft for discussion · 0.1
Five proposed marks for describing human and AI contributions to creative work.
Provenance means where a work came from and how it was made.
Human-created
People develop the creative ideas and expression.
Human-led creation
People lead and substantially shape work that retains AI-generated or reworked expression.
Shared creative development
AI-led, human-shaped
AI establishes the main concept and material; people make substantive edits or adaptations.
AI-generated
AI produces the creative content from a brief, with minimal later human shaping.
Circle: human contributionsSquare: AI contributions
In a connected pair, the upper shape indicates creative leadership. Overlap shows shared development. Read the symbols with their labels.
Human-created can include routine AI proofreading or technical processing that preserves the work’s creative content and intended expression.
How it could work
- Choose the description that best fits the creative process.
- Add a short explanation, with a fuller process declaration available.
- Place the mark and its label beside the work or in its credits.
The mark summarises a declared process. The accompanying explanation provides the detail. Write a process declaration.
In a publication
One book. Different processes.
Text and illustrations can carry different marks because they were made in different ways.
Read this example’s process declarationsHypothetical illustrated book · credits
How this book was made
Illustrations
Human-led creationHuman sketches and art direction · AI-assisted rendering
Full process declarations accompany these credits.
Would these marks be useful?
This proposal is being shared with publishers and other creatives to find out what works, what is confusing, and what needs changing.
- Are the symbols and category names easy to understand?
- Could you describe your own creative process using them? Where would you struggle?
- Would these marks be useful in practice, and what would you change?