FAQ

  • The Human Creator Alliance is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) with a social mission to mitigate the disruptive effects that generative AI-created content is having on the world.

    Generative AI is changing economic market forces in a way that devalues human creators: artists, writers, coders, designers, and everyone else who creates.

    We’re here to fix this, so we are creating a platform to change how the marketplace values generative AI-created content. We believe there is inherent and intrinsic value to human-created works such as art, writing, and music, and we don’t want to live in a world that doesn’t feel the same way.

  • Generative AI is a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that can produce a variety of content, including text, graphics, audio, video, and many other forms of data and media. Examples include ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Bard. The rapid growth of generative AI is partially due to its easy-to-use interfaces, which are typically prompt-based and can nearly instantaneously create high-quality images, writing, video, music, and more.

  • Generative AI is an exciting and amazing technology, but it is also causing widespread controversy and many experts identify several key risks.

    The risk to jobs and the economy:

    Generative AI can create human-like works, varying from literature, news articles, essays, scientific and research reports, artwork, designs, graphics, audio and video recordings, and anything else that can be created digitally. This is estimated to have a major impact on the job market. A recent research report published by Goldman Sachs predicts over 300 million jobs will be affected. And in an OpenAI (the creators of ChatGPT) research paper, they estimate that 80% of jobs will be impacted by AI.

    The risk of misinformation:

    As mentioned above, generative AI can create human-like works at scale, and can include misleading and fake news articles, papers, essays, audio, and video. The proliferation of misinformation in recent years due to social media is already a major problem in the world, but the ability to mass produce this misinformation at scale will only exacerbate this issue.

    Widespread intellectual property infringement.

    Generative AI platforms are trained on vast quantities of data scraped from the internet. This includes lots of copyrighted material, such as artwork, literature, and music. In turn, the elements of this copyrighted material are incorporated into the outputs produced by generative AI. This is problematic because it violates the Intellectual Property of the copyright holders, and it puts the user of the AI-generated output at potential legal risk. This has already resulted in the initiation of multiple high-profile lawsuits, including a class action motion.

  • No, we are not against Artificial Intelligence (AI) overall. We are cautiously optimistic about many of the great benefits that certain forms of AI research are having in fields such as science and medicine. It also should be noted that generative AI is only one subset of Artificial Intelligence, which is a vast and worthy field of scientific research in its own right. Indeed, generative AI represents an astounding and impressive feat of human achievement. It is one of the most powerful tools our species have ever created. We also believe great power like this should also come with great responsibility. We agree with this open letter calling for a temporary pause on AI experiments so that they can be "...planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.".

  • We seek to create a platform to restore trust, transparency, and accountability to the marketplace and creative ecosystem.

    Our first initiative on this front is to create a series of certifications to help creators, writers, artists, etc., demonstrate to the world that they follow our Ethical Standards towards the usage of generative AI, as outlined in our Code of Ethics, and AI Content Guidelines. To this end, we have partnered with Credly, the leader in verified digital credentials, to provide hosting and validation of our certifications.

    In addition to additional levels of certifications and organization credentialing, our future initiatives include leveraging our membership with the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) to develop and implement our own open standards-based content authenticity and provenance technology integrations, as well as developing additional types of AI detection and validation.

  • Yes, absolutely!

    While our platform is perfect for creators who want to clearly demonstrate that their works are original human creations and do not use generative AI, we understand some people will want to be able to embrace and use generative AI in their creations.

    To them, we say, yes, but you also must strictly adhere to our ethical framework as outlined in our Code of Ethics. In a nutshell, this means you will be required to be radically transparent and honest about how, where, and when you use generative AI in your works at all times.

    We believe that this approach will foster and encourage a healthy AI creative ecosystem, and we hope creators who enjoy working with AI tools embrace the benefits of adding a layer of trust to their brand.

  • We have chosen to partner with Credly because they are the best-in-class when it comes to verified digital credentialing. Credly badges follow metadata best practices to ensure the highest quality digital credential ecosystem. They have issued tens of millions of digital credentials on a proven scalable platform that includes powerhouses like IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft as well as hundreds of other organizations. Credly badges are universally verifiable from an authoritative source, and empower us with the ability to revoke badges should a user violate our Code of Ethics or Terms of Use, a feature necessary to provide integrity to our system and give our certifications a real-world impact.

    Learn more about how we work with Credly here.

    Learn how to accept and manage your Credly badge here.

  • You are allowed to cancel your membership at any time but be advised that you will lose all membership benefits, including any digital credentials you may have earned from us, which will be revoked on the Credly platform. Our digital credentials are only available to Members in Good Standing because the integrity of our system requires us to investigate violations of our Code of Ethics and Terms of Use, which incurs an ongoing cost to us for providing our unique credentialing service.

  • If you suspect any breaches of our Code of Ethics or misuse of our Credly credentials, please report to ethics@humancreatoralliance.org. Please report violations of our Terms of Use or Acceptable Use Policy to support@humancreatoralliance.org.

Why we work with Credly

About Credly

Credly by Pearson is the best-in-class and market leader in digital workforce credentialing, such as competitive tech certifications. They have issued more than 50 million digital credentials in every country in the world, making it the world’s largest professional credentialing marketplace. Organizations like IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Adobe, and CompTIA, as well as professional associations and higher education institutions around the world, trust that the skills they are teaching can easily be verified and shared.

Credly is the only digital credentialing platform with three ISO certifications, and is fully GDPR compliant, in addition to their subprocessors being compliant too. They have API integrations that meet nearly every business need and are committed to constantly and aggressively increasing their safety and security measures. Once Credly learners earn their digital badge, they join a network of badge earners that are now visible to hiring managers, human resources, and business leaders.

Recently Credly was acquired by London-based Pearson Education, the world's leading learning company. The combined company is estimated to be worth $400bn.

How it works

A common misconception is that a digital badge is just a pretty icon, but it is important to understand that digital credentials are not the same as "gamification badges", which lack the proper badging ecosystem behind them to solidify their validity. Every badge issued through Credly represents a resume-worthy and career-worthy achievement. This is because Credly is the only credentialing platform that verifies their issuers. They believe in high-value, high-quality digital credentials that will drive high-quality outcomes for issuers and earners, and they must check the following boxes:

  • The digital credential comes from a reputable source.

  • The digital credential speaks to a skill or knowledge that was verified (assessed).

  • Employers or others who make important decisions would be looking for people with that credential or those skills represented by the credential.

  • The requirements for the digital credential are transparent.

In addition to the attributes listed above, a vital part of a quality digital credential is its metadata. Metadata mapping connects the credential with what the earners are capable of doing after earning the badge, along with the requirements to earn it, and why stakeholders should care about it.

The integrity of our membership only works if our credentials have the ability to be validated (made possible by Credly), and equally important, revoked if necessary (also made possible by Credly). It is the integrity of our platform, which partially relies on the infrastructure provided by Credly, that makes our ethical certification model work. 

AI Content Guidelines

These Guidelines do not supersede our Code of Ethics, but are meant to be a helpful “rule of thumb” or shorthand for interpreting the application of our Code Ethics. Neither do these Guidelines supersede our Terms of Use or Acceptable Use Policy.

Keeping in line with the goals and values of the Human Creator Alliance, members commit to radical honesty and transparency regarding the use of generative artificial intelligence tools in their work, as well as a duty to renounce ownership of works created by crossing the threshold of ethical AI-use.

While members have the ultimate responsibility to determine what needs to be communicated about their work and how, the following guidelines may be helpful for determining how to proceed:

When in doubt, err on the side of transparency.

Do not understate how AI was used. If you’re not sure, be overly honest.

If it was made with a prompt, label it AI-created. 

This includes works where the majority (more than 50%) is made up of AI-generated input.

Examples:

  • A script generated with ChatGPT

  • An illustration generated with Stable Diffusion

  • A blog post is written with “content automation” technology

If AI was used for 10% or more of the work, label it AI-assisted.

This includes works where the majority is original and AI has been used to enhance or modify the work.

Examples:

  • A landscape photo with a horse was added using Adobe Firefly in Photoshop

  • A program with 10% or more of the original code written with Bard.

  • A virtual home environment with wall art generated with Midjourney.

  • A comic strip with imagery generated by Dall-E, but copy and story written by a human.

If AI was used for the bulk of preparation and ideating, label it AI-assisted.

Examples:

  • A book based on concepts and characters generated by an AI chatbot.

  • A company logo created using AI tools for concepting.

  • An architectural design inspired by AI-generated renderings.

If AI was used to automate repetitive or tedious tasks, use your discretion.

It is the responsibility of the creator to determine whether their use of an AI tool has crossed the threshold for what can be claimed as a human-created work. See the Code of Ethics for additional clarity.

How do I label how AI was used in my work?

This depends on where and how work is being published or hosted. Here’s a rule of thumb: the more AI was used, the more prominent the disclosure should be. (However, if you are seeking to highlight an absence of AI as a selling point, you will also want to display this fact prominently.) A basic minimum standard would be to include a statement with a link to your HCA Credly badge.

Examples:

  • Add a succinct statement or disclosure indicating the presence (or absence) of AI in your work, with a link to your HCA Credly Badge.

  • Including a prominent disclosure in the caption of an Instagram post (don’t just bury it in the hashtags)

  • Adding a disclosure to the beginning of your film’s credits

  • Disclosing which components of an app were built with AI in the README.