Make AI use understandable.
Six levels for describing the role of generative AI in a work: what it contributed, whose substance the work carries, and how it was reviewed.
The scale
Six ways a work is made.
The numbers describe different roles for AI. They do not rank quality. An absent declaration means unknown.
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Level 0 — Human
No generative AI was used.
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Level 1 — Assisted
AI worked only on material you had already made. It invented nothing.
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Level 2 — Co-created
You made most of the final form. AI made parts of it that stayed.
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Level 3 — Directed
The substance is yours. AI produced the form.
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Level 4 — Prompted
AI produced the substance and the form. You asked, you checked, you are accountable.
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Level 5 — Automated
AI produced the substance and the form. No human read it before it was published.
Say it in a sentence
A declaration that travels with the work.
Choose a level, add a sentence, and link to its definition.
Find your level
Answer the five questions about the work you are publishing. Check the definition and the relevant edge cases.
Say it in a sentence
Add a visible sentence or a badge near the work. Explain any differences between text, images, audio, video, or code.
Specification
Keep the link to the public definition. Add optional metadata when your publishing system supports it.
Example declaration
The knowledge, data and argument are the author's; AI produced the text from them. Level 3 on the AI Usage Scale.
Plain text — where images cannot go
AI Usage Scale: Level 3 (Directed) — https://usagescale.org/3Project status
Open to use. Open to scrutiny.
AI Usage Scale is an independent proposal. Its definitions and marks are CC0. Anyone can use, implement, or improve them.
A level is a self-declaration. It does not certify accuracy, quality, rights, or legal compliance.
Mappings to other vocabularies are suggestions. They do not imply endorsement or support by Google, Schema.org, W3C, IPTC, or C2PA.