Separate the dimensions
Ideas, structure, prose, facts, and review are different kinds of contribution. The profile describes each on its own terms.
The Provenance Profile · An open framework for human–AI authorship
Make the origin of a work legible.
The Provenance Profile is a compact disclosure that shows how human intention, AI assistance, and human judgment combined in a finished work—without reducing authorship to a misleading percentage.
01 / The problem
“AI-assisted” says too little.
A reader does not merely want to know whether AI was present. They want to understand what, exactly, they are receiving from the named author.
Did the author originate the ideas? Determine the argument’s sequence? Choose the wording? Did AI edit a dictation, propose a framing, or generate the first draft? And, above all, did the author examine and adopt the finished work? A binary disclosure cannot answer those questions.
The logic is not new. Scholarly publishing already separates contribution into typed roles—the CRediT taxonomy—and leading journals now require disclosure of AI use while reserving authorship, and its responsibilities, for humans. The Provenance Profile extends that discipline to everyday professional writing.
02 / The approach
Three commitments behind the profile.
The profile is built to answer the reader’s real questions: it separates kinds of contribution, names each in fixed language, and keeps responsibility with the person who publishes.
Use plain, fixed labels
Controlled vocabulary makes one profile comparable with the next while remaining honest about what cannot be precisely measured.
Keep responsibility human
Origin and accountability are distinct. AI may contribute an idea; the person who publishes it must still evaluate and own its use.
The goal is not to maximize human provenance. It is to maximize the value of the work while making its provenance legible. Foundational principle
03 / Why not percentages?
Measure what can be measured. Describe the rest.
“78% human” looks objective, but unless something was counted it is only an impression wearing the costume of a measurement. Different models—or the same model on different days—may assign different figures.
Percentages are appropriate for verifiable evidence such as retained wording, sentence traceability, or sequence overlap. They should not be used as a single proxy for ideas, authorship, voice, and responsibility.
Measurement is also what keeps a profile honest. A profile is a claim about the drafting record—dictation transcripts, prompts, successive drafts—and a challenged label is settled by that record, not by assertion. Labels carry weight precisely because they can, in principle, be checked.
04 / The framework
Four dimensions. A fifth when facts are at stake.
Each dimension asks one distinct question and uses labels that are meant to explain themselves when attached to a memo, article, report, or book.
Choose the narrowest label that truthfully reflects the process. Add a short clarification only when the standard label would omit something material.
A profile describes the dominant mode of the whole work. Note material exceptions in the Context line; a long work may carry per-section profiles instead of a single misleading average.
01
Ideas
Who introduced the work’s substantive claims, insights, and conclusions?
- Author-originated
- Jointly developed
- AI-originated, author-adopted
“Author-adopted” means the author evaluated the AI-originated idea and deliberately made it part of the work.
02
Structure
Who determined the sequence, framing, and argumentative architecture?
- Author-defined
- Jointly developed
- AI-proposed, author-adopted
“Author-defined” covers structure substantially supplied by the author—whether laid out in advance or shaped through the author’s iterative direction.
03
Prose
How did the final sentences come into being, and how substantially did AI shape them?
- Author-written
- Dictated, AI-refined
- Jointly written
- AI-drafted, author-revised
One spectrum covers both production and reshaping: each label names who wrote the sentences and who reworked them. Prose describes production—not ownership of the underlying idea or the author’s approval of the result.
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Facts
Who supplied the evidence, data, and checkable claims—and were they verified?
- Author-supplied
- Jointly sourced
- AI-sourced, author-verified
- Not independently verified
A conditional dimension: include it whenever the work makes checkable claims; omit it for opinion, narrative, or purely personal notes. “Not independently verified” is an honest label, not a failing—use it rather than implying verification that never happened.
04
Review
What level of human scrutiny and deliberate acceptance did the final work receive?
- Reviewed for substance
- Fully reviewed
- Fully reviewed and revised
Review is the profile’s accountability axis. “Reviewed for substance” means claims and conclusions were checked but wording was not scrutinized—appropriate for quick internal notes, not outbound work. Factual verification is claimed on the Facts line, never implied here.
05 / How to read a profile
Read across, not up.
The labels do not form a ladder from “less human” to “more human.” Read them horizontally as a concise history of the work.
Start with ideas and structure
These reveal where the argument came from and who shaped the way it unfolds.
Then read prose
It tells you how literally to treat the phrasing as the author’s unaided language.
Finish with facts, review, and accountability
These show whether claims were verified and whether the author deliberately accepted the work presented.
06 / Worked examples
Different profiles. Equally legitimate work.
There is no ideal combination. The right profile is the one that accurately represents how the work was made.
Dictated, then refined
The author speaks the argument in sequence. AI compresses repetition and improves transitions.
- Ideas
- Author-originated
- Structure
- Author-defined
- Prose
- Dictated, AI-refined
- Review
- Fully reviewed and revised
The author stands behind the complete memo and its final wording. No Facts line: a personal memo makes no checkable claims.
Developed in dialogue
AI proposes a useful distinction and alternative outline; the author tests, reshapes, and adopts both.
- Ideas
- Jointly developed
- Structure
- Jointly developed
- Prose
- Jointly written
- Facts
- AI-sourced, author-verified
- Review
- Fully reviewed
The author adopted the analysis after review and accepts responsibility for its claims.
AI-drafted for velocity
The author specifies the audience, objective, evidence, and constraints; AI produces the first complete draft.
- Ideas
- Author-originated
- Structure
- AI-proposed, author-adopted
- Prose
- AI-drafted, author-revised
- Facts
- Author-supplied
- Review
- Fully reviewed and revised
The use of AI increased execution speed; it did not transfer the author’s responsibility.
07 / The values
Provenance is not purity.
A profile is a disclosure, not a grade. More human contribution does not automatically mean better work; more AI contribution does not mean worse work.
What the profile describes
How human and AI contributions combined in the finished work.
- Origin of ideas and framing
- Development of structure
- Production and reshaping of prose
- Sourcing and verification of facts
- Degree of human review, and where responsibility sits
What it does not judge
The value, authenticity, truth, or intellectual worth of the result.
- Quality or originality as a whole
- Factual accuracy
- Ethical acceptability in context
- Writing skill or intelligence
- Whether AI use was “too much”
08 / Use it
A compact profile for any document.
Place the profile near the title, byline, or end note. Use one label per dimension, then close with a direct statement of accountability.
Label the dominant mode of the work and note material exceptions in the Context line. Include the Facts line whenever the work makes checkable claims—and claim verification only when it has actually occurred.
For bylines, footers, and signatures, use the short form below. Its codes map one-to-one to the full labels, so a reader can always expand it.
Provenance Profile Ideas: [Author-originated / Jointly developed / AI-originated, author-adopted] Structure: [Author-defined / Jointly developed / AI-proposed, author-adopted] Prose: [Author-written / Dictated, AI-refined / Jointly written / AI-drafted, author-revised] Facts (when the work makes checkable claims): [Author-supplied / Jointly sourced / AI-sourced, author-verified / Not independently verified] Review: [Reviewed for substance / Fully reviewed / Fully reviewed and revised] Context (optional): [One sentence covering material exceptions or contributions the labels do not capture.] Accountability: I reviewed the complete work and stand behind its [arguments, conclusions, and final wording].
Keep the selected labels and delete the alternatives. Adjust the accountability line only to make it more accurate, never stronger than the review performed.
PP/0.2 · Ideas: author · Structure: author · Prose: dictated+ai · Review: full+rev
Codes per dimension — Ideas & Structure: author · joint · ai-adopted. Prose: author · dictated+ai · joint · ai-drafted. Facts: author · joint · ai-verified · unverified. Review: substance · full · full+rev. Omit Facts when the work makes no checkable claims.
The best profile is not the “highest” one. It is the most honest one.