a symbol to mark creative work made with human intelligence, not artificial intelligence

I am profoundly alarmed by the flood of AI-generated images, books, films, music, and so on. I want to create a distinction between those artifacts and what I make.

 

With Dima Al Ajouz, I developed the hi-mark. I made it because, first of all, I want to use it. I want to tell people that the things I create are entirely human-made. I also want to know that the art and culture I look at, read, and listen to is made by humans, because culture is quite literally how humans survive.

 

 

The human hand in the creation of art and culture is not an inefficiency to be eliminated; it is essential and defining. Every song, story, image, dance, film ever made (before this decade) was imagined and created by human beings with a real and mortal stake in remaining alive.

 

I do not want computers allowed to vote, because they don’t need clean air or water or functioning public schools. And I do not want computers making my culture, because they do not have a stake in, or even a comprehension of, human survival. They have never felt physical pain or pleasure. They have never had their hearts broken. They have never eaten a meal. They have never experienced time.

 

I'm inviting your help. If the hi-mark resonates with you, use it.

 

(There are hi-marks below ↓, more on the hi-mark homepage or just click here to receive all the hi-marks in one email.)

 

Let's start a conversation about the sovereignty of human-made art and culture.

 

 

OR: This work was conceived, developed, and constructed by human intelligence only.

 

My rule of thumb is borrowed from novelist Lincoln Michel: If you would credit a human for doing something, you should also credit AI for doing it. If a human did the research for my project, I would list them in the program and thank them in the acknowledgments. The same holds for AI: If AI did my research, that work of art was not made using human intelligence only. On the other hand, if a human gave me directions to the dance studio where I rehearse, I wouldn’t list them in the program. Similarly, if AI gave me directions to the studio, I would still say any dance I made there was made using human intelligence only.

 

Great, have at it. I am in no way trying to tell artists what to do.

 

Absolutely. It’s just a circle around two lower-case letters: hi.

 

Use the mark. (And send me a picture of it.)

Tell other artists about it.

If you have other ideas, reach out: andrew@artistsu.org

 

downloadable hi-marks
(find them all here)

              png file with transparent background                                               jpg with white background

    hi-mark explained, png with transparent background                                             small png

hi-marks in the wild

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