AI Influence Level (AIL) v1.0
Humans care who created things. Especially art. They especially care when the origin is in question, and more again when the origin might not be human.
AI is yielding tremendous gifts, but it raises questions regarding what we read, see, and hear. How much of the article you just read was written by a human? Did ChatGPT write it? And what about the art for the image? Did the author purchase that from a real artist, or did they make it in Midjourney?
It's not always bad if there was some AI involved. The point is transparency. We'd like to know what we're getting, and where to give the credit.
A rating system
This is a first attempt at rating creative content for its level of AI authorship. Any creative endeavor applies—from an article to an essay, to a painting to a song.
This rating system works on a scale from 0 to 5.
The badge next to each level is the mark for that level. AIL is reversed out of a solid panel, and the number sits beside a five-segment rail filled to the level. That rail is what makes it readable at a glance, without a legend and without knowing the system.
The colors run muted sage to dusty brick. I wanted the progression obvious and the judgment absent. A bright green at 0 would read as a gold star, and a bright red at 5 would read as an accusation. Neither is what this measures. A 5 tells you how the thing was made, and that's all it tells you.
Daily usage
We anticipate the following uses and pronunciations.
AIL is pronounced "ALE", as in beer. Or like "ail" in ailment.
Most common:
This essay is at AIL Level 0. 100% grass fed writing!
Or:
The article itself is AIL 1, but all the art for it is AIL 4. Midjourney FTW!
Or:
I now use automation to create my blog articles, so all my content is either AIL 4 or 5!
Where the mark goes is up to you. On this site it sits in the margin next to the tags, and the note at the bottom of each post says the same thing in words. The badge is the glance; the note is the explanation.
Summary
- As AI becomes more prominent, people will want to know how much AI is in a piece of art
- There is no accepted rating system for providing such a rating
- AIL is one such rating system that rates content on a scale from 0 to 5
- Each level has a badge, so a piece can carry its rating rather than describe it
Notes
- Thanks to Jason Haddix for talking through this pre-publication.
- Thanks to Joseph Thacker for a naming change suggestion.
- More on how the badges were designed and how to use them on your own site: AIL Badges.
- 🤖 AIL LEVELS: The original 2023 essay was AIL0 for the writing and AIL3 for the images (via Midjourney). The 2026 update that added the badges is AIL2 — I set the design direction and picked the mark, and Kai wrote the sections covering it.