What is Human Authored?
Human Authored is a labelling scheme. Authors can use the logo on qualifying books, demonstrating that the text is their own intellectual creation, produced through human skill, labour and judgment.
About the scheme
The Society of Authors has been working with the Authors Guild in the US to launch the Human Authored scheme. It is the first of its kind launched by a UK trade association to help protect an entire profession.
Authors in the UK will be able to declare and register their work as Human Authored. Authors can then download the logo for use in print and digital.
Readers will be able to search the Human Authored database before buying or borrowing a book, giving them confidence that the books they choose to read are the creative work of a human, rather than AI-generated content.
The SoA has been campaigning to defend authors’ interests and safeguard creators against the wholescale theft of their work by AI tech companies to train their AI chatbots. Our new labelling scheme is an important ‘sticking plaster’ to protect and promote human creativity in lieu of AI-labelled content in the marketplace.
How does the Human Authored scheme work?
SoA members can register their work after reading and understanding the definition of Human Authored and signing the agreement. Once this is complete, authors are able to add details of their publications to the database, and will be provided with a digital logo.
Who can use the scheme?
The scheme is currently only open to Society of Authors members with text-based works who have written, or translated, a traditionally, or self-published, book. The aspiration is to open the scheme more widely to illustrated works, as well as to those who are not SoA members in the future.