The world needs transparency
In case people haven’t noticed, the Insite team is pretty passionately behind the ideas of craft, transparency, honesty, authenticity and other deeply human aspects of making — whether that be art, design or products in general. And to encourage and envelop these ideas, we’ve built our brand business to support these concepts and show brands how they can pursue craft in everything they do. We help our clients build craft brands that are honest, transparent and passionate and as a result we’re known Nationally in Canada as the Craft Brand experts.
So it makes sense that we think about this area of brand thinking a lot. Consequently, a couple years ago while sketching, I was thinking about the potential impacts of emerging AI technology on art, design and craft and the resulting importance of trust and transparency in the creative product. I felt strongly that the idea of honesty is vulnerable and being undermined — and that there would be a time when honest human creativity would need to be more overt in terms of originality and ownership. With that I considered and doodled a system of identification called “Human Made" which I pondered if it would ever become a necessity in our creative lives to include in our representation of the work we create. I believe we’re now there. Desperately.
The Human Made Identification System
HumanMade [HM]. A symbol and certification that attempts to guarantee the integrity of what you create in the world — like a promise to the world that your creation is from your human mind, through your human hands and AI free tools, to the final finished form unaltered or influenced by AI. This could be [HM1].
And with honesty and clarity the HM symbol informs the world at what stage of the creative process you involved AI — be it not at all [HM1], or just at the final execution [HM2], or AI assisted at every point after concept [HM3]. And finally, a completely AI generated product without human conceptual influence [AI].
AI is an increasingly used tool in the creative process from thought to realization. And it’s not going away. One of the many areas AI seems to be conflicting with society, as it relates to creative, is in the lack of transparency of its involvement. Like certified Organic food or B Corp responsibility and sustainability, I believe that people want to know the truth in a product such as where AI has influenced creative.
This is for many reasons both emotional and practical. Naturally, we need to know for a human sense of morality and emotional value — some feeling the need to connect with the soul of a product, or song, or art — to feel it was made with originality, purpose and in earnest.
Perhaps we also need to know in order to connect a sense of ownership and originality. Or to assign morality and accountability. Whatever the reason, knowing where AI fits allows us to decide how we view and value the creative we’re looking at, engaging with or buying.
Human Made Symbol in Application
This HumanMade system is just a sketch, a lot needs to be worked out but perhaps it’s a start. Maybe something exists or others have begun down a similar path and if so, that’s fantastic, let’s call it a necessary trend that we should all support.
It’s not difficult to imagine that such a system has to be built on honesty and trust itself. And to work, audiences will need to be able to trust the symbols, which means, as a start creators will need to be truly honest about their process and diligent in auditing if any AI was part of the outcome.
Of course, claims and use of the symbol can be easily abused. Hopefully this will be a minor issue in the short term as the concept gains adoption and then eventually there can be a voluntary inclusion into a trust certification that aims to guarantee that the creator bases their reputation on honesty and transparency — and so whatever symbol they use per project, that they use it to the best of their knowledge and are earnest.
Until there’s a parent certification, or network of local certification partners, the system can simply be adopted as a means to start the awareness and drive the desire for transparency.
Creators could start to tag HumanMade in a number of ways. Such as at the end of a social post or body of writing — state [HM1] , [HM2] or [HM3] and then tag #trusthumanmade or @trust_humanmade
But eventually, we might see the symbol on a product in retail, or on a display on the table of a craft market, or on the wall label beside art in a gallery. Who knows.
Let’s build it
What do you think?
Anyone want to start this HumanMade identification system and certification with us? Love to hear your thoughts and ideas to help build it out further. Email us: studio@insitedesign.ca
Cheers