Why I Label AI
There's a question people are asking about your content whether they say it out loud or not: how much of this did AI write? I know they're asking because I ask it too. I'll read a post, hit a paragraph that's a little too tidy, and catch myself wondering. It's not always a criticism. It's just a thing my brain does now. And if I'm doing it to other people, I have to assume other people are doing…
People are curious about the extent of AI involvement in your content, and I, too, often ask myself. While reading a piece, I notice a paragraph that seems a bit too polished and wonder how it was crafted. This type of thinking is shared by many, as we often unconsciously judge the origin of written works. The judgment happens whether we're involved or not.
When someone can't determine the source of a piece, they make assumptions. If they can't tell how much AI was used, they may assume more AI than actually used, or less, giving credit for work that wasn't fully created by the author. Both scenarios are unfavorable. The first one costs me credibility and authority, while the second one becomes a debt that's owed whenever someone discovers the truth.
To address this, I chose transparency. I created a simple AI disclosure scale, accessible at tregrisby.com/ai-levels. This scale has three levels: 0 for no AI involvement, 1 for AI-assisted work where a human wrote the content and AI helped polish it, and 2 for fully AI-crafted work with a variant indicating that I reviewed the output before sharing it.
The intention behind this disclosure is to build trust, just as trust grows when we know how something was made. When readers understand the creation process, they can evaluate the content based on its merits rather than making assumptions. Disclosure is not an apology for using AI, but rather a way to remove a variable so that the content can be judged on its own merits.
Not all content requires the same level of disclosure. Some material, such as technical recommendations or personal opinions, should be written entirely by the author, while other content, like reformatted notes or caption variations, can be AI-assisted. This AI level 2 approach is not meant to be permanent. As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, the question of how much AI was involved will eventually become less relevant, just like the skepticism surrounding early internet content.
In the end, what truly matters is whether the content worked and whether the message landed with the reader. I don't expect to use this AI disclosure approach forever, but I believe it's important while we transition to a post-AI skepticism era. My primary concern is that I can't blame AI for any mistakes in the content. If my name is on it, it's my responsibility to ensure it's accurate and well-written.
The AI level 2 label is a promise that I, as the author, have reviewed the work and accepted it as is, flaws and all. By implementing this AI disclosure scale, you too can build trust with your audience and focus on creating quality content, rather than worrying about how much AI was involved.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
