DEFINITIONS for CONTENT CREATORS
Content creators today face a credibility challenge: how do you prove your work is authentically yours when AI can generate compelling content across every format? This standard draws a clear line between human production and machine generation.
QUICK REFERENCE
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VerifiedHuman label requires VH3 (Human-Led) or higher on the Human-AI Spectrum
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Essential question: "Who produced it?"
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Acceptable AI use: Research, transcription, metadata, SEO suggestions, caption formatting, scheduling tools
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Not acceptable: AI-generated content elements you claim as yours
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The Replacement Principle: A gut-check — if you stripped away every AI-generated element, would the creative vision still hold together?
QUICK NAV
Foreword →
Definitions in the standard →
Other definitions ›
Interpretation →
FOREWORD
The foundation of this standard is Essential Production: who produced it?
Content creation spans formats—text, visuals, audio, video, and design—integrated into a cohesive experience for an audience. When a human conceives, develops, and assembles those elements, they are the essential producer. When a machine does it, the machine is the essential producer.
Content is made of creative elements—text, visuals, audio, video, or design—selected and assembled for an audience to experience. It can take the form of a video, newsletter, social media campaign, podcast episode, blog post, or any combination of formats delivered across platforms.
Content creators work across mediums. A YouTuber scripts, shoots, edits, and publishes. A newsletter creator blends original writing with curated visuals and design. A social media manager produces posts across text, image, and video formats. A podcaster writes show notes and produces social clips. The common thread: they integrate multiple creative elements into a cohesive product.
As AI tools become capable of generating text, images, audio, and video simultaneously, audiences need clarity about who made what they're consuming. This standard helps content creators communicate their creative role while maintaining flexibility across their production tools.
We support content creators who use AI in non-standard ways.
For instance, some creators may intentionally use AI to generate and recombine elements as part of an experimental or conceptual production. They may find the VerifiedHuman label unhelpful on that piece, but use it for content where they led the creative process.
In this way, we hope to be helpful and encouraging to all content creators
HUMAN-AI COLLABORATION LEVELS
Our 5-level Human-AI Spectrum shows who led the creative process. All VerifiedHuman-labeled work must meet or exceed VH3, meaning the content creator led.
VH5 - Entirely Human-Produced
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The creator conceived, developed, and assembled all content elements without generative AI.
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Traditional production tools (video editing software, graphic design tools, audio mixing, scheduling platforms, CMS systems, SEO tools) are fine.
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The work reflects the creator's vision, voice, and editorial decisions across every element.
VH4 - Human-Produced, AI-Enhanced
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The creator conceived, developed, and assembled all content elements.
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Generative AI may assist with non-creative production tasks: research, transcription, metadata, SEO suggestions, caption formatting, scheduling optimization.
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The creator's voice and editorial decisions dominate across every element. AI supports the workflow but doesn't generate the content itself.
VH3 - Human-Led, AI-Assisted
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The creator leads the content strategy and creative direction.
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AI may generate raw material for individual elements — draft copy, image options, audio cleanup, rough edits — but the creator substantially transforms and integrates those elements into the final product.
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The finished content reflects the creator's editorial vision and voice, not assembled AI outputs with minor adjustments.
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Apply the Replacement Principle as a gut-check: if you stripped away every AI-generated element, would the creative vision still hold?
Work below VH3 is not eligible for the VerifiedHuman label.
USING CONTENT OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (AIU)
Sometimes, content creators incorporate elements of uncertain origin into their work. These might include stock assets, template elements, found media, or components where the creation method (human or AI) is unclear. In other cases, creators may suspect that AI has generated some of the material they are using, but the origin, time, place, or purpose is unknown or uncertain.
When using content elements of unknown origin, add the AIU (AI-Unknown) tag to your VH level designation, for example, VH4-AIU.
In the spirit of this standard, the question remains: Did you produce it, or did AI produce it? We believe the content creator's intention to create and present content as their own should always remain with them.
Therefore, we urge all content creators to use the Replacement Principle as a gut check and iterate on their work throughout the creative process to ensure their final product is unique and distinctive.
DEFINITIONS
Here are definitions of words and ideas used in the Standard for Content Creators.
Standard
A statement of commitment to specific creative practices
Content Creator
The producer of content
Represent
Claim, present, or share work as your own
Content
Creative elements — text, visuals, audio, video, or design — selected and assembled to be experienced by an audience
Team
A group of people working together
Intellectual property
A creative work to which one has legal rights, such as copyright or trademark
Essential
The fundamental elements or characteristics of something
Essentially produced
When a content creator conceives, develops, and assembles elements to create content. The test: Who produced it? (see Essential Production below)
Essential content elements
Text, visuals, audio, video, and design — can be assembled into posts, videos, newsletters, campaigns, podcasts, or other multi-format works
Human
Noun: a person; Adjective: originating from a person
Generative AI
AI systems trained on existing content that generate new text, images, audio, code, or video in response to prompts. Examples include ChatGPT, Canva AI, and Runway.
Machine learning
Algorithms that learn from data to make predictions or generate content
Other generative processes
Any other AI or machine learning process that creates new content
OTHER DEFINITIONS
Other definitions of words and ideas related to the Standard for Content Creators.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
A field of computer science focused on creating systems that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and generating content.
Content generation tools
AI systems that generate text, images, audio, video, or design elements in response to prompts. Examples include ChatGPT, DALL · E, Runway, Canva AI, and ElevenLabs.
Multi-format content
Content that combines elements across two or more mediums — such as text and video, audio and visuals, or writing and design — into a single work or campaign.
INTERPRETATION
Here are two questions that AI-using content creators must interpret independently. The creator is responsible for adhering to their own values and judgment.
Q: What if I used AI to write my newsletter copy, but I shot all the photos and designed the layout myself? Does the whole piece qualify?
Content creation involves multiple elements. Each element can sit at a different point on the spectrum. The question is whether the overall production reflects human leadership.
Q: What if I use AI to generate social media captions for content I filmed and edited myself?
Some creators use AI to handle repetitive production tasks, such as captions, metadata, and scheduling copy, while creating the core content themselves.
Here's how to evaluate these approaches:
ACCEPTABLE: Using AI for production support (transcription, SEO metadata, scheduling, caption formatting) while you conceive, develop, and assemble the core content. AI handled logistics. You produced the work.
GRAY AREA: Using AI-generated copy for one element (like captions or script drafts) while creating all other elements yourself. Ask yourself: Does this element carry the creative weight of the piece? Use the Replacement Principle as a gut-check.
NOT ACCEPTABLE: Generating most content elements with AI — text, images, and audio — and assembling them with minor edits. If AI produced the elements and you arranged them, AI did the creative work. Even a well-curated collection of AI outputs is not human-led production.
The question remains: Who produced it?
REAL-WORLD SCENARIO: YouTube Video with AI Assistance
Alex creates a 15-minute YouTube video about sustainable fashion. Alex uses AI to:
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Research sustainable brands and summarize findings (research assistance)
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Generate a transcript of the raw footage for reference (transcription)
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Suggest SEO-friendly title options (metadata support)
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Auto-generate closed captions (accessibility tool)
Alex wrote the script, filmed all footage, designed the thumbnails, edited the video, and made all creative decisions about pacing, tone, and narrative structure.
VERDICT: VH4 (Human-Produced, AI-Enhanced)
WHY IT QUALIFIES: AI assisted with research and technical production tasks, but Alex conceived, developed, and assembled all content elements. Alex is the essential producer.
THE REPLACEMENT PRINCIPLE
Content creation involves multiple elements working together — text, visuals, audio, video, design. Unlike single-medium work, the question isn't whether one element was AI-generated. It's whether the human led the whole production.
The Replacement Principle is a gut-check: if you replaced every AI-generated element in your content with a placeholder, would the creative vision still hold? Would someone watching your process see a human building something — or a human approving things?
If you strip away what AI contributed and there's still a clear human editorial throughline — strategy, voice, sequencing, emotional arc, point of view — you're at VH3 or above. If stripping away AI leaves you with prompts and approvals but no creative spine, you're below the line.
The spirit of the principle remains in the question: "Did you produce it, or did AI produce it?"
ESSENTIAL PRODUCTION
Content creators conceive ideas, develop elements across formats, and assemble them into finished works for an audience. These works can be consumed as videos, newsletters, social posts, podcasts, campaigns, or any combination of formats across platforms.
The essential question of production is: Who produced it?
A simpler way of asking is: Who made this? This applies to entire content pieces or even individual elements within a piece.
RATIONALE
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Content creation is built on assembling elements — text, visuals, audio, video, and design — into a cohesive product.
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When these elements are conceived, developed, and assembled by a human to be experienced meaningfully by an audience, the result is content.
ASSUMPTION OF ESSENTIAL HUMAN PRODUCTION
If a human conceives, develops, and assembles content elements into a finished work that can be experienced meaningfully, then that human is the essential producer.
VerifiedHuman helps content creators certify their work as human-made. Established in April 2023, the standard provides a clear framework for communicating who led the creative process. Free to join, pay what you can. Creators certified across 25+ countries worldwide.
