The mark of human authorship.
A voluntary honor-code declaration for human-created work.
Generative AI has made it easier than ever to produce creative output at scale. AI-generated content is changing how audiences perceive creative work. Audiences, clients, publishers, and creative communities need clear ways to determine when a creative work was authored by a human being.
The HC Mark gives creators a simple voluntary language to declare when the substantive creative expression behind a work was made by humans. That is, for declaring human authorship without pretending that technology has no role in the overall production process.
[H][C] stands for Human Creation.
The mark is a simple declaration that the substantive creative expression in a work was created by a human.
A voluntary honor code for creators who want to clearly declare the role of human authorship in their work.
The substantive creative expression of a specific work was made by a human creator.
Technical tools may support correction, cleanup, formatting, or production without replacing human expression.
The HC Mark is a voluntary public statement, not a formal certification, verification system, or legal guarantee.
Creators may place the HC Mark near a work to declare how human authorship applies to it. The mark can appear in captions, credits, websites, books, videos, music releases, portfolios, project descriptions, or metadata.
Use [H][C] or [H][C]-T depending on the role of tools in the work.
[H][C]
Human-authored work.
Meaning:
The substantive creative expression was created by a human without generative AI.
[H][C]-T
Human-authored work with technical assistance.
Meaning:
The work is human-created, but technical tools were used for correction, cleanup, formatting, transcription, restoration, accessibility, or production support.
The mark should appear close enough to the work that audiences can understand what is being declared.
Where possible, link the mark to humancreationcode.com (The Human Creation Code) so audiences can understand what it means.
Human Creation Code began as a response to a simple problem: as generative AI makes creative output easier to produce and harder to identify, creators and audiences need clearer ways to distinguish human-authored work from synthetic content.
Human Creation Code was launched as an independent initiative to give creators a simple voluntary framework for preserving, declaring, and communicating human authorship without rejecting technology altogether.
Common questions about the HC Mark, human authorship, technical assistance, and responsible use.
No. The HC Mark is not a rejection of technology. It is a voluntary means of distinguishing human-authored creative work from AI-generated work. Creators can choose to use the HC Mark on some creations and not on others.
[H][C] means Human Creation and Honor Code. It states that the substantive creative expression in a specific work was created by a human and without the use of generative AI.
[H][C]-T means human-created with technical assistance. Tools may have been used for correction, cleanup, formatting, transcription, restoration, accessibility, or production support, without replacing human creative expression.
No. At this stage, the HC Mark is a voluntary honor-code declaration. It is not a formal certification, verification system, legal guarantee, or proof of authorship.
Only if AI was used for technical support and did not generate the substantive creative expression of the work. AI-assisted correction may be compatible with the mark. AI-generated expression is not.
The HC Mark is a voluntary honor-code declaration. It is not a certification, verification system, legal guarantee, or proof of authorship.
© 2026 Human Creation Code.