The Authorship Index

The questionHow much of that text did a person actually write?

One digit answers it — on a novel, a corporate report, a screenplay, a policy paper, anything written for an audience. Zero means no artificial intelligence at all. Nine means no person at all. Everything real sits somewhere between.

[AI 6] — short for Authorship Index, level 6. That is what the letters stand for, and the digit is the level. The mark is only ever written the short way: six keystrokes, no artwork, no font, no image file.

Why brackets? They're the editor's mark for material that didn't come from the author.

The index

Tap any number to read what it means.

Why it exists

Novelists have been given one-star reviews for using artificial intelligence, often by people who never read the book. Firms are asked whether a report was machine-written and have no consistent way to answer. Studios, journals, agencies and government departments are all being asked the same question in different words.

The Authorship Index is a shared vocabulary for a question everyone is already asking badly. A reader who won't go above a 4 and a reader who seeks out the 8s because they find them thrilling are served by exactly the same number.

The index describes where the words came from. It says nothing about whether the work is any good, and nothing about whether using artificial intelligence was the right call.

That is the claim, and the format works against it. A single digit running 0 to 9, printed on a cover, gets read as a grade whatever the words beside it say. Numbers on products always are, and saying it isn't a score does not stop a reader treating it as one.

The ordering was chosen anyway, and deliberately. An unordered set of labels would carry no implied verdict, and nobody would use it — eleven unranked categories are not something a reader can hold in their head, and a scale that can be read at a glance is the only kind that gets adopted. Legibility was bought at the cost of neutrality. It was the right trade, and it was still a trade.

Nobody checks

The number is the author’s own statement. Nothing verifies it, nothing audits it, and nothing prevents a 2 on a work that earned a 6. There is no register to check it against — deliberately, because the alternative is an inspectorate for prose.

It would be easy to say that nutrition labels work the same way, and it would be misleading. They do rest on self-declaration, but what holds them up is trading standards and criminal liability — not that manufacturers are honest. This index has neither, and should not borrow the comfort of an example it doesn't resemble.

What it has is smaller. An accurate number costs nothing to give. A false one has to be defended by the person whose name is on the work, to readers who have read it. Good-faith self-declaration has been assumed before and has failed at scale — ratings agencies before 2008, carbon reporting before greenwashing became a profession — and the honest position is that this is the same kind of arrangement, doing a smaller job, with less riding on it.

A standard that waited for a way to verify every claim would never arrive, and the question is being asked now — badly, and in public. An answer an author can be held to beats no answer at all.

A declaration is not a certificate. The index records what an author says about their own work, not what anyone has checked.

What it applies to

Anything written for an audience. The index was not built for books and then stretched — it covers the written word wherever it appears, and a book is one case among many.

The full range, group by group

Published and editorial

Novels, non-fiction, short fiction, poetry, journalism, essays, reviews, newsletters, blogs.

Business and professional

Reports, white papers, proposals, tenders, brochures, annual reports, investor updates, press releases, internal policy.

Academic and educational

Papers, theses, dissertations, textbooks, course material, lesson plans, grant applications, peer reviews.

Legal, regulatory and public

Contracts, filings, submissions, patent applications, policy documents, official guidance, consultation responses.

Performed, broadcast and interactive

Screenplays, stage plays, radio drama, podcast and video scripts, game narrative and dialogue, song lyrics, speeches, sermons.

Personal and professional

CVs, cover letters, personal statements, references, obituaries, eulogies, speeches for occasions.

The test: if it is written, and somebody other than the writer is meant to read it, it is in scope.

Who may ask you for one

Nobody has to use it

This standard requires nothing of anyone. It defines a vocabulary and makes it free to use — it does not tell any industry, platform, employer or publisher what to do, and has no means of doing so.

Anyone may ask for it

A publisher may ask it of its authors, a journal of its submissions, a university of its applicants, an employer of its candidates. That is their decision, taken for their reasons. The obligation comes from them, not from here.

The number stays yours

However the request arises, the declaration is the declarer's own statement, and nobody may declare on another person's behalf without their knowledge. A required declaration is still a personal claim, and its honesty rests with the person making it.

This standard takes no view on whether any such requirement is appropriate. It has no means of enforcing one and no means of preventing one.

That answer is good enough about a book and not about a job. A reader who will not go above a 4 is one person exercising taste. A candidate asked to declare on an application cannot decline and stay in the process, the employer sets both the question and the consequence, and the practice being declared is entirely lawful.

X does not rescue them. Prefer not to say costs nothing on a novel; on an application form it reads as concealment. The one option built for people who would rather not answer is the option that costs most exactly where the pressure is greatest.

This standard cannot stop an employer asking. It can refuse to launder the decision. A number describes where words came from — it does not establish that a candidate is less capable, less honest or less suited to the work, and anyone using it to screen out lawful practice is making a hiring judgement of their own, which this standard does not supply and which should be defended in their words rather than attributed to a scale.

For anything performed or filmed, the index describes the script. An audiobook narrated by artificial intelligence from a human-written script is marked on the script it was read from. The written word is what the index measures, whatever form it finally reaches an audience in.

How it works

You choose your own number

Nothing computes it for you. A declaration is a statement you make and stand behind, and a number produced by a form is one you can disown.

There is nothing to sign up for

This site holds no record of any work. No accounts, no database, no register of who declared what — and therefore no list of who didn't. Print the mark and it works.

The scale turns at 4

Below 4, every word is yours — the number says whether artificial intelligence checked, discussed or planned. From 4 up, some of the prose is the machine's, and the number says how much. One question tells you which half you're in: did it write any words that are still there?

Where more than one applies, take the highest. Someone who discussed the idea and had the outline written declares 3, not 2 and 3. The number is the deepest involvement, not a total.

Spellcheckers don't count

Not at any level. They correct what you already wrote and put no words in your mouth. Checking your spelling has never been authorship.

Where this came from

No government wrote this. No regulator, no trade body, no standards organisation, no committee. There is no authority above it and none behind it.

It began with an author who used artificial intelligence to write, wanted a precise way to say so, and found that no such language existed — only one phrase, AI-assisted, covering everything from a spellcheck to a machine writing the lot.

It was then written the way it describes: by a person and a machine together, and declared accordingly at 6. A standard about authorship that concealed its own would not deserve reading.

Nothing compels its use and nobody enforces it. Its only authority is whether it proves useful, and it will last exactly as long as that holds.

This is not a legal requirement and satisfies none

The Authorship Index is not a certification. It carries no approval, confers no compliance, and has no official status in any jurisdiction. Where a law requires a disclosure about artificial intelligence, this index does not discharge that obligation and is no substitute for it. A declaration made here is one thing only: a statement its declarer chose to make.

How it was worked out →

Mark your own work

Choose your number, take the artwork, and put it where your work already names its author. It costs nothing and always will — there's no account to create, no form to send, and nobody whose permission you need.

Get the mark →

[AI 4]

Part-written by artificial intelligence

What this means

What it doesn't tell you

  • Whether the work is any good.
  • Whether the author was right to use artificial intelligence, or wrong to.
  • Anything about the author's honesty beyond the fact that they declared.

The index describes where the words came from. Nothing else. A reader who won't go above a 4 and a reader who seeks out the 8s because they find them thrilling are both served by the same number.

Saying it out loud

Put authorshipindex.org beside the number and you never have to explain it again — anyone who wants the detail can go and read it.

The full index

    Marking your own work

    Choose your number and print the mark. Nothing to sign up for and no permission to seek — this site holds no record of any work, including yours.

    Get the mark →

    Not sure which number?

    Two questions will suggest one. The answers stay in your browser and are never recorded.

    Answer two questions →

    Artwork

    Choose your number and write it down. It costs nothing, the right to use the mark can never be withdrawn, and there is nobody you need to ask. There is one file on this page — the code — and you only need it if something is going to be printed.

    This mark is not a certification and has no legal effect. Where a law requires a disclosure about artificial intelligence, printing this does not discharge that obligation.

    1 · Your number

    [AI 4] — part-written by artificial intelligence.

    Not sure? Answer two questions →

    2 · Write it

    The mark is text. In a footer, a byline, an email, a metadata field, a document header — you type it and you are finished. No file, no font, no image, and nothing to take from this page.

    Six keystrokes: two square brackets, a capital A, a capital I, one space, your number.

    The letters are the Authorship Index — the name of this standard — and the digit is the level. Plenty of readers will see AI and think artificial intelligence, which is fair enough and lands them in the right place: the number answers that question either way.

    Written out, in the places it usually goes:

    • [AI 4]on its own, where the scale is already known
    • [AI 4] authorshipindex.org/4with the address, where it may not be
    • <a href="https://authorshipindex.org/4">[AI 4]</a>as a link, on a web page

    Artwork earns its place in one situation: something printed, where the mark has to hold a size beside a barcode, or where a reader needs a code to scan. Everywhere else the typed mark is the mark, and it will outlive any file on this page.

    3 · The code

    The only thing on this page you cannot type, and so the only thing offered as a file. It encodes one address — https://authorshipindex.org/4 — and nothing else. No identifier, no parameters, nothing about your work and nothing about whoever scans it.

    The code for your number 22 × 22 mm

    Version 3, 29 × 29 modules, error correction Q — about 30% damage tolerated, so it survives a scuffed cover. There are only ever eleven codes; take the one matching your number and reuse it forever.

    4 · Examples

    Ways the mark is set, drawn at print size. These are examples rather than assets: every one is type, and you can set it yourself in whatever face your work already uses. Only the code above is a file.

    Where the mark goes

    Print may want the code. Everything else wants six keystrokes and a link.

    Books

    Back cover beside the barcode, plus the copyright page. Add [AI 4] to your metadata — that's where cataloguers and retail feeds look.

    Reports, papers and brochures

    Title page or colophon, wherever the document already states its author and date.

    Scripts and screenplays

    Title page, beside the draft date. The index describes the script, not the performance.

    Websites, articles and anything digital

    No artwork needed. Write [AI 4] in the footer or byline and link it to authorshipindex.org/4. That's the whole implementation — the text is the mark.

    Video and audio

    In the description, marking the script. Say so explicitly: "Script: [AI 4]."

    The code

    The code in the artwork above is real and scannable. It encodes one address and nothing else:

    https://authorshipindex.org/4

    No identifier, no parameters, no tracking. Version 3, 29 × 29 modules, error correction Q — which tolerates about 30% damage, so it survives a scuffed cover.

    Eleven codes, forever

    Nothing about your work is encoded, because nothing about your work is held anywhere. There are only ever eleven codes in the entire system — /0 through /9 and /x — and they never change. Take the one matching your number and reuse it.

    Test it in print, not on screen

    Print it at the size you intend to use, on the stock you intend to use, and scan it with an ordinary phone in ordinary light. Matte and uncoated papers absorb ink and thicken modules; a code that scans perfectly on a screen can fail on paper. 18 mm is the sensible floor.

    Keep the quiet zone

    The blank margin around the code is part of it — four modules on every side, already built into the artwork. Cropping it, or letting cover art run up against the edge, is the most common reason a printed code stops working.

    Host the file yourself

    Download it and put it on your own server. This site deliberately does not offer an image address to link to, and the reason is worth knowing before you go looking for one.

    It would make every page that used it call us

    A linked image is a request to whoever hosts it. Every visitor to every page carrying the mark would be reaching this site, and its host would see them. That is a stream of readers we have promised not to gather, created on other people's pages without their readers knowing.

    And it would make your page depend on ours

    If this site were slow, moved, or went dark, the mark would vanish from your work. A file you hold cannot be taken away, changed underneath you, or switched off.

    For anything digital you need no image at all

    Write [AI 4] in the byline or footer and link the text to authorshipindex.org/4. Six keystrokes, no file to host, nothing to break. The artwork exists for print, where text alone will not do.

    Print rules

    Advice: watch the capital I

    In many sans-serif faces the capital I is a bare vertical stroke, near-identical to a figure 1 — so [AI 4] can read as [A1 4]. A1 is a common idiom for first-rate, and this index grades nothing, so that is the one misreading worth designing against.

    We advise a face whose capital I is unmistakable. Most serif faces carry crossbars top and bottom by construction; some sans faces add them deliberately. Set it and look at it small.

    [AI 4]Serif — crossbars, unmistakable
    [AI 4]Sans with crossbars — also fine
    [AI 4]Bare stroke — reads as A1

    This is advice, not a rule. The standard rules on what the mark means and advises on how it is set.

    Do

    Keep clear space on all four sides equal to the height of the digit. Print in a single ink — black on white, or the cover's own ink on its own ground. Set it in the cover's own typeface if you prefer — the number is the mark, not the font.

    Never

    Never colour-code the scale green to red — the moment the mark carries a verdict, the standard has broken its own promise. Never add "only", "just", or "certified human" beside the number. The digit is the whole statement.

    Also worth doing

    Put the number on the copyright page and in your work's metadata as [AI 4]. That's where librarians, cataloguers and retail feeds will look, and it costs nothing.

    Say how, not just what. The digit alone carries little credibility — a sentence in your acknowledgements explaining how artificial intelligence was involved carries a great deal. That note is yours, lives wherever you put it, and this standard can never lose it.

    Not sure which number?

    Two questions. Answer them the way you'd tell a friend what you did.

    Answers stay in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, stored, or recorded against you or your work.

    The standard

    The Authorship Index, version 2026. This page sets out the standard in the order it is written: what the index is, how to choose a number, and what may never change about it.

    Revised

    [AI 6] Written by artificial intelligence, shaped by the author

    The idea, the decisions and the editing are the author's. The sentences are largely the machine's. A standard that would not declare itself would not be worth much.

    The Authorship Index | Standard version 2026 | authorshipindex.org | JSON