Definitions v0.1

The labels

Draft v0.1. These definitions are a working draft. Each record states the version it was declared under, and every change is public and versioned.

Two questions decide the label for the text: who originated the content, and who wrote the sentences? What counts is what appears in the published text, not which tools touched the file.

Human Authored (HA)

HUMAN AUTHOREDNo generative AI wrote the textSelf-declared

The author or authors originated and wrote all of the text. No generative AI wrote, rewrote, translated or expanded any of it, and no wording, passage or plot point that an AI generated or suggested appears in it.

Compatible with this label

Spelling and grammar checkers that flag problems for the author to fix by hand.
Research, brainstorming or discussion with AI tools, provided nothing the AI generated or suggested (wording, plot, structure) appears in the work.
Speech-to-text dictation, and accessibility, formatting and indexing tools.

Not compatible with this label

AI-written or AI-rewritten sentences, passages, summaries or dialogue, including generative grammar or style rewriting.
AI translation of the text.
Ideas, scenes or wording suggested by an AI that the author then used.

Note. Applies to the published text of the work, including front and back matter such as the blurb, dedication and author’s note.

AI Master Edited (AME)

AI MASTER EDITEDAuthor directed · Author approvedSelf-declared

The story, ideas and structure originate with the human author, who directed the AI and reviewed and approved every change. AI served as editor, researcher, sounding board or continuity checker, and may have revised or rewritten the author’s own text under that direction.

Compatible with this label

Line edits, rewrites and tightening of the author’s own draft, directed and approved by the author.
Consistency, continuity and fact checks.
Suggestions that the author accepted, rejected or adapted.

Not compatible with this label

New scenes, chapters, characters, plot points or substantial passages that the AI originated rather than the author. Use AI Co-Authored.

Note. Decide by origination: the author originated the content, and the AI changed how it was expressed. If the AI originated passages from a prompt, they are AI-generated even when the task was called “editing”.

AI Co-Authored (ACA)

AI CO-AUTHOREDHuman + AI collaborationSelf-declared

Human and AI materially collaborated in creating the expressive content: AI originated new passages, scenes, chapters or dialogue that appear in the work, with a human directing, selecting and editing.

Typical uses

AI-generated prose, however heavily the author edited it afterwards.
AI used to draft chapters or scenes from the author’s outline or prompts.

Note. Choose this label when AI produced a meaningful share of the sentences, even if the author shaped the whole.

Covers, illustrations, narration and translation

The label above describes the text. Other parts of a book are declared separately, because a book can have a human-written text and an AI-generated cover, or the reverse.

Choice	Meaning
Not applicable	The book has no such component, for example no audiobook.
Human-made	Human-made, no AI used
AI-assisted	AI-assisted (human-made; AI used to retouch, upscale, clean up or modify it)
AI-generated, human-directed	AI-generated (an AI tool created it; a human directed and selected it)

Example: a cover an author asked an AI image tool to design, then refined over several rounds of prompts, is AI-generated, human-directed.

Tool terms and rights

The labels describe process. They are not statements about ownership, licensing or copyright, which depend on each tool’s terms of use (these differ by provider and by plan, and change over time) and on the law of each country. For that reason every registration asks the registrant to list the tools used, with their plan or tier, and to confirm that they have checked that the tools’ terms permit use of the outputs in the publication. The registry does not verify this and gives no legal advice.

Versions

This is version 0.1. Changes will be proposed publicly, numbered, and never applied retroactively: a record always shows the version under which it was declared.