Glossary

AI

The non-human party. Any system that produces text without a person writing it — whatever it is called, and however it works. Today that is artificial intelligence: large language models and their kin. Used broadly, so that the definition outlives both the technology and its name.

Human

A person. Not an organisation, not a legal person, not a system. The index measures what human beings contributed.

The author

The human whose work it is, and whose name is on it.

The declarer

Whoever states the number. Usually the author; sometimes a publisher or an organisation. The two are often not the same, and only the author is a human by definition.

The work

The whole thing being declared — a book, a report, a script, an edition.

The words, the prose

The sentences a reader actually reads. Levels 4 to 8 turn on who produced these. Levels 1 to 3 turn on other things.

Substance

Facts, continuity, argument, meaning. As opposed to mechanics — spelling, grammar, punctuation — which sit outside the index entirely.

Declare

To state a number. Never rate, score or grade: those are the verbs of judgement, and this standard makes none.

The mark

The token [AI 4], typed or printed.

The index

This standard, and the scale it defines. A single value is a number or a level — never a rating.

AI, the letters

Neither artificial intelligence nor the Authorship Index is abbreviated in prose. The letters appear in one place only: the mark. There they name the Authorship Index and its level, and they also read as artificial intelligence — which is what the non-human writer is in 2026. That is deliberate rather than a collision.

Why this page exists

A standard that uses two words for one thing invites two readings of it. The distinction between the author and the declarer decides who carries responsibility when a publisher marks a book. The distinction between the work and the words decides the whole middle of the scale.

The exclusions matter as much as the definitions. Rate, score and grade are barred because they carry evaluation, and a standard that judges nothing cannot use the verbs of judgement without contradicting itself in its own grammar.