AI Usage Scale · Level 2 of 0–5

Co-created

You made most of the final form. AI made parts of it that stayed.

The work is yours in structure and in most of its execution, but material a model produced survives in the published result: passages, elements, variations you chose between. You wrote, drew, or played the majority of what the audience receives.

This is the level when

AI drafting a section you then rewrote, where your words dominate the whole
AI generating variations you selected from and edited
AI writing a function inside a codebase you designed and mostly wrote
AI extending or filling part of an image you composed

This is not the level when

AI producing most of the final words or pixels — that is Level 3 or above
Purely mechanical correction with nothing invented — that is Level 1

Examples

An essay you outlined and largely wrote, with two AI-drafted paragraphs you reworked.
A track you composed and performed, with one AI-generated texture in the bridge.
A feature you architected and wrote, with AI-written helper functions you reviewed.
A photo you shot, with a distracting object removed by generative fill.

Say it in a sentence

Paste one of these into a byline, an article footer, a video description, a search-result description, or an email signature. No image required — a declaration that only works as a picture is a declaration half the web cannot read.

Short — for a byline or a bio

AI Usage Scale: Level 2 — Co-created.

Medium — for an article footer or a meta description

Mostly made by the author; some material was generated by AI and kept. Level 2 on the AI Usage Scale.

Long — for an editor's note

The author made most of this work — most of the words, pixels, or sound. Some material generated by AI survives in it, selected and edited by the author. This is Level 2 on the AI Usage Scale.

Put the mark on it

Copy the badge as inline SVG and it renders instantly, works offline, and sends no request to us. That last part matters: a hotlinked badge is a tracking pixel on your page, and a standard about honesty has no business shipping one. The hosted file below is there for convenience, not because we want the traffic.

Level 2 chip · no external font, no request

Inline SVG — recommended

Self-contained. Nothing to load, nothing to track.

<a href="https://usagescale.org/2" rel="ai-disclosure" title="Mostly made by the author; some material was generated by AI and kept. Level 2 on the AI Usage Scale.">
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</a>

Hosted image — if you would rather link it

<a href="https://usagescale.org/2"
   rel="ai-disclosure"
   title="Mostly made by the author; some material was generated by AI and kept. Level 2 on the AI Usage Scale.">
  <img src="https://usagescale.org/badge/2.svg"
       alt="AI Usage Scale: Level 2 — Co-created. You made most of the final form. AI made parts of it that stayed."
       width="205" height="24">
</a>

Plain text — where images cannot go

AI Usage Scale: Level 2 (Co-created) — https://usagescale.org/2

Let machines read it too

The same declaration, in the vocabularies the compliance layer already speaks. We are not competing with these — we are the human-readable face of them.

For the <head> of your page

<!-- AI Usage Scale proposal; custom metadata, not a registered standard -->
<meta name="ai-usage" content="2">
<meta name="ai-usage-standard" content="https://usagescale.org">

<!-- Experimental syntax aligned with discussions in the W3C AI Content Disclosure Community Group; not a W3C standard -->
<meta name="ai-disclosure" content="ai-assisted">

<!-- AI Usage Scale -->
<link rel="ai-disclosure" href="https://usagescale.org/2">

<!-- schema.org -->
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "CreativeWork",
  "additionalProperty": {
    "@type": "PropertyValue",
    "propertyID": "https://usagescale.org/spec#aiUsageLevel",
    "name": "aiUsageLevel",
    "value": 2
  }
}
</script>

Experimental ai-disclosure	`ai-assisted`
IPTC	`compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia`
schema.org	`aiUsageLevel: 2`

If the parts differ

Optional. A single number describes the work as a whole. When parts of it differ sharply, declare them. The badge always shows one number; the breakdown lives behind the link.The headline level describes the part of the work that carries its meaning. Decorative material that a reasonable audience would not consider material to the work does not drive the headline — declare it here instead.